Like a cat

Final: It wasn't fair!

2006-08-15T19:54:20Z

He’d locked himself in the bathroom, after it’d happened, and spent a good long while staring at himself in the mirror. Nothing had changed. At all.

Apart from the zit on his left cheekbone. And that one had gotten bigger.

He’d stalked out of the bathroom when his sister’s pounding on the door became unbearable and had left through the open window. He hadn’t even been trying to show off. He returned in time for breakfast the next morning and his parents, uncharacteristically enough, hadn’t said anything.

It was probably like if people got cancer or something. Then you didn’t say anything either.

He was still a mutant.

So many people had lost their powers it seemed – and he couldn’t decide whether he felt relief or bitterness. Most of the time, it was likely a mix of both.

Things had been going so well. His voice was beginning to settle. Though it might still get deeper. Deeper would be good.

He’d gotten taller. He’d grown.

But now this – this ruined everything. It fucked everything right up and it wasn’t fair. He’d begun to believe that he could get a regular job one day. A regular life. Now, it seemed like there was only one path open for him. For them.

He returned to the school.

Kate was still there. Jono. Some of the others. But it wasn’t the same. Nothing was the same anymore.

He got into fights in the hallways. Not just pushing and shoving. Real fights.
When Remy separated him and one of the other kids – by picking him up from the floor as if he was – as if he was a fucking cat - he snarled and yowled and almost managed to claw him despite being held almost at arm’s length and facing away.

He bore the repercussions in sullen silence.

Kate still made him smile, but he began to slip away more and more often. In the afternoons. At night. Not far, never far. He just needed space. And silence. And somewhere to sharpen his claws.

Diary entry

2006-03-19T17:23:01Z

I think I did okay on the pop quiz today.

Sort of.

I hate quizzes.

I’ve been thinking about the X-Men thing. A lot. Everyone else seems to be really into it. Kate especially Everyone normal I mean – I am not counting June and some of the others. Obviously.

And it’s like – sure, I want to get to do stuff and fly in the jet and be on the team and stuff.

But it must suck sometimes too. I mean, Remy sort of said it did once. Or, like, he didn’t said it sucked, but he said that there were like – those that aren’t pros. Crams or whatever. About being an X-Man.

And I want to be a hero and stuff, but, like, I want a normal life too. Where people don’t throw stuff at you.

Also, I bet that even if you get on the team you’ll just be, like, the kid, in like forever. So they probably won’t really take consider you an adult or anything, Not really. And that would suck too.

It’s just be like one, drawn-out martial arts class with Logan. Only, people would get to kill you for real.

Growing up sucks.

However, what Denny said, back at my old school, about what happened to you if you like - did stuff. Alone.

So not true.

I can so still see the birds down by the lake and everything.

Ha.

Journal Entry [Private]

2006-01-19T21:30:58Z

School sucks.

I hope I get to do that savannah thing again soon. Danger Room sessions are fun at least.

My voice keeps breaking. I sound like a rooster with a cold or something.

And it looks like that hair on my back is growing. There’s more of it now.

I spoke with Remy and he said that he’d help me and Kate out if we wanted to go to the city or something. I wanna ask her out properly. Like, at a restaurant or something. Or to go see a movie.

I bet we could make out at a movie.

Unless Remy sticks around.

Maybe if I asked him –

Why does everything has to be so complicated?

[locked to Kate]

2005-10-19T19:47:35Z

Homework sucked.

A lot even.

Timothy turned over a page, gnawing on his pencil. How could anybody expect him to remember this stuff?
It wasn't even like it was important or anything.
It was just History.

The sunspot on the floor made it bearable though. That and knowing that Kate would stop by later. Which was good. And bad. Since they were back at school. Watched by teachers. Superhero teachers.

Life was just so unfair.

[Private]

2005-10-14T10:38:18Z

Summer being over sucks.

Like, it's totally unfair that Eddie's gotten his permit thing already. He's so not better at driving than I am. Just cause I've got like superiour senses and stuff and get distracted.

Stupid bird.

And he got into Remy's Bo class. So not fair.
I don't see why I have to take Martial Arts and stuff. Cause I'm like naturally graceful and things.

But I bet Logan won't let me. And even if he did I bet Mr. Summers wouldn't let me.

School sucks.

Some of the new kids are kinda cool though. Jono looks like a ninja. I don't know what he does but he's not supposed to eat anything.
Not even cake.

Also, it really sucks that there's people everywhere here. No privacy.

For stuff.

Shouldn't I have to start shaving soon?
Stubble looks cool. I bet Kate thinks so too.
~~At least I am not growing whiskers~~

Take off your pants

2005-08-30T15:08:54Z

Who: Timothy and Kate
When: Whilst on vacation
Where: Staying at Kate's parents but on their own
What: More attempts at getting all grown-up

Warnings: Awkward teen fumblings. Nakedness.

Kate had done the unthinkable, and had woken Timothy in the pre-dawn hours, when everything was deep gray and heavy with sleep. The birds in the trees were just starting to cheep and chirp when she insisted he get up, because there was something she wanted to show him. She had two backpacks already packed, and a small paper bag of fresh muffins and juice packed for their breakfast in the basket of one of the bikes outside. A scrawled note on the kitchen table read 'Took Timothy to Aaron's Hill. Will be back later. xoxoxoxox Kate' She moved silently, pointing out some white-tailed deer that were busy raiding the bird-feeder as she walked her bike to the road, turning to look behind and make sure he was following her.

Timothy did follow her, despite the fact that there were deer, clearly intended for hunting and - and - and hunting. Yeah. He'd pulled on a sweatshirt, inside out, and was busy rubbing his eyes and scratching his hair. Mornings. Ew. Timothy did enjoy being awake before everyone else. but that was more a three o'clock thing. Then you could go to bed again. And sleep. And be late for class. Not that that was ever the intention - it just sort of happened sometimes. However, now he was on holiday and he was fairly certain that Kate wouldn't have gotten up unless it was something special.

She grinned as she saw him rubbing his eyes. She always felt all warm and mushy when she looked at him when he was asleep. Or just waking up. Or when he was sitting in class. Or eating. Or when he was awake.

Just those times, though.

She pedalled her bike, leading them on for about twenty minutes. Not a word was said, but she pointed out things as they rode; more deer, a fox, some ducks, and a great raptor of some kind, flying up from the side of the road with a massive wingspan and sharp talons and a large beak. The sun had still not risen when she left the road on her bike, pumping the pedals now as she led them up a trail that wound its way up to a great hill.

Timothy was very taken with it all. Even the bird. Even though it was sort of creepily big. He did his best not to sound out of breath as he followed her up the hill, since it seemed rather important that she noticed his stamina. And fortitude. And stuff. He was getting increasingly curious and had a hard time keeping his eyes on the road. There was so much to see. And smell.

The last part of the trip up the hill had to be walked, pushing the bikes up with them. It opened into a wide meadow, ringed with pines and cedar trees and waving prairie grasses that smelled sweet and sounded like dry leaves. She pointed to a spot further up the trail; one that had been clearly used before as the grasses were all bent and flattened into a small depression. Parking the bike, she turned and grinned, speaking quietly. "We’ll watch the sun rise from up here." Even though she spoke softly, her voice sounded loud. Grabbing up the bag and removing her backpack, she sat down in the flattened grass area, tugging him down with her. They were facing east, and could see the horizon.

Oh. It wasn't that Timothy didn't see the appeal of the idea - but he had sort of hoped they were aiming for something a little more extreme than a sunrise. Like - something. He flopped down next to her, snuggling close because it seemed fitting. Girls liked that sort of thing - sunrises. And as long as he got to cuddle he guessed it was okay. Nice even.

He sniffed her neck a little, purring.

She wrapped her arms around him, turning in to face him a bit more and snuggled back with a grin.

"This is my secret place," she whispered. "You can see the fish eagles fly out over to the lake from here. And the sun rise. Sometimes, if you're really quiet, brush wolves will come out and sniff the air. And chipmunks....and...." she suddenly giggled, and poked him. "That tickles."

"No, it doesn't," he whispered back. "This - now this tickles." He ran his fingers down her side, tickling her. It was nice here. Actually. And of course, he was very much in favor any place he and Kate had to themselves. Even though he was willing to share with the chipmunks.

He bet he could totally catch one.

She tried to keep her laughter and her protests muffled, even as she squirmed and tried to tickle him back, cheating by burying her face into his neck and playfully gnawing while doing so. It was foul play, but there wasn't any referee to call her on it.

He made a small, startled sound - but didn't seem to mind the gnawing if the way he almost head-butted her affectionately as he stopped tickling her and went back to sniffing her hair instead. "You just smell nice," he mumbled. She did. Like candy, only better,

Well, that was a move that would have to be added to the arsenal. She filed it away for later thought and exploration, wrapping her arms around him and cuddling close, kissing his neck and ear while his nose was buried in her hair. "Strawberry shampoo," she offered. "Oh, the sun's coming up. Look..."

As promised, the sun was rising, brilliant and gold and yellow and the clouds turned purple and white as the sky lightened to its normal blue.

Timothy dutifully turned his head, squinting against the growing light. "Ehm, pretty?" he offered, not quite sure what he was supposed to say in a situation like that. "Like, really romantic. Like in a movie," he added, figuring that that was sort of the point. Or something. You never knew with girls.

She turned and looked at him, then grinned and made a snickering sound as she kissed his nose. "Not really your thing, huh? Well, I wanted to share it with you, anyhow. What do you think of the hill? Are you having a good time? I know it's kind of, um, rustic and things, compared to Yoooooooooonkers," and she snickered, grinning as she stretched the silly name out as long as possible.

He grinned and poked her a little. "You don't say it like that. And it's not like it's New York or anything. He remembered that Kate had been to New York, with Ian and Remy. If she expected anything like that she was bound to be disappointed. Although they did have gangs and stuff. He stretched a little, looking around. "It's okay. I like that there're lots of animals and stuff. And - that we don't have to hang around the adults all the time."
Especially that they didn't have to be around the adults all the time.

Sprawling right out next to him, she stretched and lay back with hands behind her head, looking up at the sky before looking over at him with a grin. "It's a bonus, definitely. And that's why I dragged you out of a nice warm cozy bed to come up here with me."

Timothy grinned and turned on his side so he could look at her. "And that's why I didn't mind getting dragged from a nice, warm bed," he said, underscoring the statement with a massive yawn.

She watched him yawn, and put on a mock-glare before yawning herself. "Oh, thanks, I needed to yawn..." and she yawned again. "Fine, I'll just take a nap right here." And she closed her eyes and tried to hold very still, pretending to sleep. Although her nose twitched a bit while she tried not to laugh.

He pretended to believe her and then started sniffing her neck again, slowly moving across her collarbone, sniffing much more loudly than he had to, merely to see how long she could keep it up.

Tiny little noises sounded in her thrat while she tried to hold back the laughter, and she made a very big deal about sighing as thugh in her sleep, smacking her jaws a little and reaching up one hand to bat at his hair. "Doggone sniffy chipmunks..." she mumbled, pretending to 'sleep' again.

Since she was batting at him for real, Timothy used the opportunity to move a little further down, not so much sniffing any longer as merely rubbing his nose a little against her. Collarbone, breastbone ...
Yeah.

His purring increased a little. She was all soft and warm.

The game took a far more intriguing turn, and she peeked under her eyelashes to look at him. He was purring, and the hand that had batted at him stayed where it was, resting lightly on his hair. This was much nicer than chipmunks, definitely. One finger stroked lightly, just grazing over his ear, and she gave a comfortable sigh and smile as she looked at him. The new sun was backlighting him, giving him a warm glow that matched the glow she was feeling inside.

This was a moment that served to show an odd dichotomy. On one hand, she was very relaxed and felt warm and soft and somehow languid, wrapping her arms around him and holding him close. On the other hand, her heartbeat was speeding up, and she felt tingly and very awake and very much alive, hyperaware of everything. Especially anything that had to do with Timothy, such as the way he was purring and rubbing his nose against her. Curling up slightly, she placed a kiss on the top of his head, letting her hand stroke through his hair. She felt like she should say something, or do something...but she wasn't entirely sure of just what to say or do.

Timothy pulled back a little, it was a struggle but he couldn't see her when he was lying like this, and smiled up at her. A wide, tiny-fanged smile. "Can we do this again tomorrow?" he asked. He wouldn't even complain about having to get up early. Despite the fact that the sun was rising had very little to do with his enjoyment of the situation.

She smiled back down at him. "Sure. Why not? Although....which 'this' did you mean? The seeing-the-sunrise part, or the lay-on-the-hilland-make-out part?" Her grin grew wider, and she slid her hand suggestively down his back, trying very hard to look the part of the seductress.

It seemed to convince Timothy who rubbed happily back against her hand, purring even more loudly. "The last bit I think. But we can come here early if you want to and stuff." He felt rather generous right now. With the way she was touching him and everything.

She made a satisfied noise, nodding, and continued doing what she was doing, since he seemed to enjoy it. "Sounds like a plan." Her smile widened. "Nobody else around, no interruptions..."

Timothy slid his eyes closed and stretched out a little, just to make sure that she'd be able to get to all of his back. The claws on his toes scratched against the inside of his sneakers and the claws on his hands slid out and back again as he kneaded the air.

Oh, he really liked that. "Here. On your belly." She rolled him gently so he lay on his belly, and proceeded to scratch and rub his back, slipping her hands under his sweatshirt to scratch and run skin.

She was careful to not rub backwards the little strip of fur/hair running down his back. "How's this?"

Timothy didn't answer exactly but from the loud, loud purring and the way he was writhing a little bit under her hands, she seemed to be doing it just right. He was almost ecstatic, completely engulfed in the sensation of being petted, and that complete absorption was likely a good thing since he would have resented the idea. As if he was, like, a cat or something.

Wow. She couldn’t remember seeing him quite like this before, and it thrilled her that she was sharing it (and helping to cause it). "Here..." she raised her sweatshirt up, lifting it over his head to tug it off. The air was growing warmer as the sun came up. "Now I can get your shoulders, too." Sitting on her legs beside him, she rubbed his shoulders, experimenting with scratching lightly and then more firmly, clearly enjoying this.

Timothy was in heaven. A blissful, warm, slightly daring heaven that hinted at possible possibilities somewhere down the line. He would have gotten all excited if his brain had been functioning properly. But it wasn't. It was simply too good. Far too good. He yawned hugely and twisted his neck so she'd be able to pet him properly there as well. In case she wanted to.

The signal was too broad for even her to miss, and she swept her hands up the sides of his back, settling her palms on his shoulders and her thumbs and fingers along the back of his neck. Knowing that that area required a lighter touch, she started massaging gently, watching closely to see if she was doing it correctly.

Timothy's nose moved a little as he relaxed under her hands, sighing happily. He knew that he ought to offer something in return, but decided to wait. He didn't want to risk that she stopped or something. His purr had gone back to being a steady, rhythmic sound. Relaxed and happy.

There it was, his whole entire back at her disposal. Recalling the first time she saw him without his shirt at the Valentine's dance (was it really so long ago?), her grin stretched even wider at the memory, while her hands took advantage of the offered skin, scratching, petting, and smoothing, learning every curve and line. An opportunity not to be missed.

Although...every time he started to doze off, she bent down and placed a nibbling kiss at the nape of his neck. Just so he wouldn't doze off.

Not this time, Felix.

Every nibble earned a soft mewl, one that didn't sound displeased in the least.

After quite a lengthy period of time had passed, Timothy rolled over on his back, blinking up at her. Sleepily. He reached up to run a finger down her nose, mindful of his small claws. "Hi."

She smiled, arching her neck slightly so that her nose moved up, into his fingertip in an affectionate gesture. "Hi," she whispered, stretching out on her side, facing him while propping her head up on her hand.

Maybe it was the dreamy light of morning, maybe it was because they were away from the school and the real world. Whatever the reason, Timothy leaned a little closer and asked, "Can I smell you?" without feeling as silly - or shy - as he would have expected to. He always smelled her, but covertly. Her hair, her neck. He'd like to do it properly though.

The manner that he asked made it seem more like a secret thing they shared between them. She'd known his sense of smell was stronger---part of his mutation, after all. But because he was asking her, instead of trying to be discreet and all made her wonder if this was something different. She nodded, smiling a bit, mystified. "Sure. What do you want me to do?"

"Just sit still," he murmured as he leaned up on his elbow and then dipped his head, burying his nose in her hair. Breathing deeply. Then he moved up a little, sniffing at her temple and down along his cheek and jaw to her neck. He paused before moving on, sniffing close to her armpits and between her breasts, looking very serious and concentrated. Doing his best to catch every last nuance in her scent and the way it changed across her body.

This was clearly something different, judging from his expression. She hadn't seen him look so fiercely determined and serious since...well, certainly not in French class.

It was strange, seeing his expression look so...adult.
It made her kind of shivery inside, as well, having his face so close to her chest like that. She made sure to hold very still, wondering if she should have put on some perfume or something, this morning. He probably would have liked that.

He could smell her skin. And - that smell that was sort of behind the skin. Timothy's nose vibrated as he crawled a little further down, breathing in deeply through his nose. Her scent changed again, as he positioned himself over her belly, hesitating a little. But the little voice, the little voice that he had gotten really good at ignoring - sort of anyway - was very insistent, and so he moved his face again, further down till his chin was resting on one of her hip bones. Maybe she'd think he was a freak or something. But he had to smell her.

She held still as he sniffed her, watching his nose vibrate a bit. She had to bite the inside of her cheek so as not to laugh. It just seemed funny, somehow.
He moved further down, and her eyes widened a bit. her mind raced ahead. I'm glad I took a shower last night! What's he doing? Do I stink? Geeze....hold still, now. Dogs and cats smell each other. Timothy's got feline senses, right? It must drive him crazy not to do this as often as his instincts tell him to. His chin is on my hip.
That last realization made her swallow.

He closed his eyes and began purring again, his throat vibrating against her. This was - just as it should be. Her scent made him feel all relaxed and keyed-up at the same time - and right now he just wanted to stay like this forever.

This was new territory for her. The books never really said anything about smelling someone, or what to do when somebody's....his head was down there. Close to....she swallowed, trying to calm herself a bit, even though her heart was really pounding heavily now. He seemed happy, which meant that she probably didn't stink. Which was a good thing. She took a chance and reached a hand out to brush across his hair.

Timothy rubbed his nose against her, right where her body curved. He shifted again, pressing a little against her leg. He was clearly enjoying himself, making small, eager noises in the back of his throat, interspersed with the loud sounds of his sniffing.

No, there was nothing in any of the books she;d read at all on this subject. The noises he was making was having an effect on her, though, and it was kind of...exciting. She could feel him pressing against her leg, just enough to let her know she wasn't imagining it.
But the position left her without a lot to do, except to continue stroking her fingers through his hair. She felt the urge to kiss him, and hold him and other vague things, but as this was uncharted territory on their previous forays, she was not quite sure how to get back to that point. Finally, she whispered, "Come on up here again? Let me kiss you."

He looked up at her, blinking a little, almost dizzily, and then he reluctantly crawled back up to stretch out beside her. It felt as if his nose was full of her. And his mouth. And his head. He ended up almost nose to nose with her, gazing into her eyes. "Thank you." It sounded sort of lame, saying that. But he was genuinely thankful. Especially because she hadn't freaked out or anything. And acted like he was, like, all weird and creepy and stuff.

The expression in his eyes and on his face was one she couldn't name, but there was something inside her that suddenly rose and almost took over, making her nearly ache. His thanks were met with a warm smile, and her arms went around him to kiss him. This was more familiar territory; the best place to begin and return to when things got confusing and flustered.

Every inch of her felt like it was tinglingly awake, and had been forever.

It was always good kissing Kate - but today it was even better. Because he could still smell her. Her. That showed in his kissing, enthusiastic, insistent and wet. He felt terribly awake and rather hoped that there weren't any plans for today that would necessitate their return to the Copperfield residence anytime soon.

Kate seemed to show no inclination to get up and go back home anytime soon; her world was wrapped up completely in the form of Timothy.
Especially when he kissed like that.

It seemed he wasn’t going to go to sleep after all, and for that, she was incredibly grateful. The desire to kiss him didn't stop while she was kissing him, though, and the effects were rather like gas added to a fire. She felt very warm (much more than what the sun alone make her feel), and the urge to be close to him was almost overwhelming. he was right there, but she kept her arms around him, pressing tight against him. It still wasn;t quite enough, and she worked to loop a leg around him as well, hoping that might make things a little easier.

Oh. Ooooh, that was a good idea. Timothy slid one of his legs forward a bit as well, and put his arms properly around her. Not that he could pull her any closer than she already was but he felt he had to at least try. One of his hands wandered a bit and ended up right below the small of her back. He was feeling a little short of breath all of a sudden and his hoodie seemed all too warm. Which was odd, kinda. Seeing as how it was still early and all. He pulled back to nip at her bottom lip, very carefully, and then went back to the wet, eager kissing.

This would never do.
She was all out of breath and felt like she was on fire, in a most pleasant way. She'd felt like this before, she dimly recalled, when she was messing around with him after homework (or before, or during, or instead of), but this time was different. It was more imediate. Kind of like when she was dreaming at night, with those odd and unformed sort of dreams that left her half-awake, confused and pulling at her pillow, not understanding and feeling like she was missing something.
Hugging him was wonderful. But his sweatshirt was too hot. That could be fixed, though. Without really thinking about it, she carefully broke their kiss long enough to grab the bottom of his sweatshirt. With a single long tug, she yanked up up and over his head without so much as a by-your-leave, only slowing down once it was off of him and half-on her leg. She smiled a bit sheepishly. "It needed to come off," she tried to explain, blushing a bit.

Timothy wasn't about to argue that point with her. "Okay," he said and pulled her close again, this time running his hands up under her shirt, caressing her back. She was all warm there and stuff. He kissed her again and then left his mouth drift down the side of her neck. It seemed to be the right thing to do.

Her own hands swept up along his back again as they went back to hugging close and kissing, and when he kissed along her neck, she raised her chin to let him kiss some more. She couldn’t help the soft, pleased noises she was making. A small part of her thought about the bandanas she had in her backpack, but it was over there and they'd have to stop again.
Maybe in a little bit.

Her hands swept up his back, scratching lightly while she tried to kiss his forehead. His hands on her skin felt wonderful, and she moved to press against him some more.

Now it was his turn to pull at her blouse, because she was far too dressed as well and it would be so much better if she wasn't. Obviously. The sounds she was making were making him feel all sorts of hot and funny and - yeah. So he rubbed against her some more, just against her thigh, purring again. There were, as always, the deep-seated urge to bite her, but he was able to keep from doing anything of the sort by digging the claws of one hand into the ground.

His hand was working at the buttons of her blouse, and she didn't stop him. Right now, she wanted very much to feel her skin against his. he felt as hot as she did, but it wasn’t a complete sort of feeling. Her brain was still fuzzy on the entire thinking-things-through phase, and it felt wonderful do simply do what felt good. His slight rubbing drew her attention, and one hand slipped down his back, resting right above the waistband of his pants. They were into very daring territory, now.

Stupid buttons. Timothy couldn't hold back a small triumphant sound as he finally managed to get Kate's blouse open so he could push it off her shoulders. Heh. Bra.

It also meant that he could kiss further down now, tasting her skin which was almost as good as smelling her.

The hand - right there - made him move about a little, trying to press back against it without losing the lovely closeness elsewhere.

She always wondered about how she would feel when they got to this point. The answer to the question was...urgent. He could see her bra and everything. But he wasn't looking at it. Instead, he was kissing downwards, and his lips brushing past her collarbone made her breath catch in her throat as she shivered. Her hundred thousand freckles were matched by goosebumps, and she edged her hand down a little more, so her fingertips were brushing the waistband of his underwear beneath his pants.
He was very warm, which turned out to be just the right temperature.

Timothy stilled as her hand moved further down - and then his hand mimicked her hand's movement. Inching down. Her underwear was all soft and stuff. He'd gotten distracted from his kissing by this new development but renewed his efforts with gusto - partly to distract her. Things had so often gotten so close - only to be stopped at the last minute. Kisses seemed to postpone that last minute quite a bit. Normally.

It worked; her attention had gathered up only to shatter as he kissed her. "Mmmmf," she sighed, relaxing where she'd started growing tense before, while her hand pressed lightly against the small of his back.
She loved this. How could it keep feeling better and better? His kiss demanded more and more of her attention, and she returned it eagerly.

Right, now that she was sufficiently distracted it was time to launch the attack. One of Timothy's fingers, claws pulled all the way back, slowly made it's way under her panties, right where the elastic hem curved along her thigh.

Wow.

His purring almost made his lips vibrate as he shifted again, this time to get in a position where he'd be able to get his hand further under her clothing.

She'd never realized that even something like kissing had a point where you suddenly seemed to fall into a very comfortable rhythm. Until now. Everything about this was more and more perfect. His breathing. How he tasted, and the feel of his hands...his hands were busy. Kate was keenly aware of where his hands were, and what he was doing, and the thought make her heart pound with excited enthusiasm.

As though responding to the foray his fingers were making, she slid her hands a bit further down the back of his pants, feeling the smooth skin of his rump beneath her fingertips. If this was a race, she'd won.

Hmm ... Timothy was fairly certain that he was supposed to take the lead in this. Considering that he was, like, the guy and all. He fumbled a little, trying to get his finger further along without actually doing any harm to her clothes. And then his fingertip touched a bit of skin that felt different than the rest. Like - softer. And -

Woooow.

He was so touching -

Wow.

She'd been enjoying the latest development, feeling the forbidden part of his rump, hardly daring to believe that she was doing this. The kiss was a particularly fascinating one, made of a string of several little kisses and a few that were extremely complex. She's lost track of exactly what his hand was doing, when all of a sudden his fingertips brushed along...

Omigod...

She stiffened slightly, inhaling deeply and letting her breath out with a small, soft noise while feeling quite swept away with this giddy and overpowering, nameless emotion.

She had to breathe, and use her mouth to do so, so she broke the kiss. "Timothy." She bit his chin very gently. "Take off your pants." She tugged at the waistband, showing him (quite unnecessarily) that they were in her way.

He frowned a little at the bite, wrinkling up his nose. He'd have to let go then. Rats! On the other hand, what she was doing was kind of nice. Also -

"Only if you take yours off too." He managed not to sound too smug as he said it. It was only fair after all.

His frown made her stop immediately; and she rubbed her cheek against his by way of trying to make up for that.

And then he laid down the challenge for her to remove hers as well. His tone implied it was only fair. She'd have an easier time of touching him...and he'd....but he'd see....

Then again, so would she. She nodded. "Okay." Her heart sped up, but she waited until he moved off before she slipped from her shirt and her pants, trying not to blush and trying to think thin thoughts.

Timothy fumbled with his pants as well. Part of him hadn't really expected that she'd agree. Aw man - why did it have to be all - like that? She'd just think he was, like, a perv or something. He got his pants off and looked back at her, fighting down an urge to cup his hands in front of his crotch.

Her bra and panties were the only things left on, now, and she was doing one of those full-body blushes, setting off her quarter-billion freckles. Her legs started to draw up slightly, and she looked at his expression, suddenly beckoning for him to come lay by her side.
"It's okay. The sun feels good, doesn't it?"

She wanted very much to see him like this, but was petrified of what he thought of her. This anxiety was no good. No good at all. They had to get past this.

He settled down next to her again, overcoming his own shyness enough to look at her. Or as much as he could see when they were positioned like this.
Heh. He could totally see her nipples. That thought brought about a well-know heat in his cheeks and ears. And, like, places.

She smelled really nice too.

"Yeah," His voice sounded somewhat weak. Cause, like, nipples.

She had an idea how to do this. It was easy to see they were both skirting mortification. But she'd seen things in some movies, and the main characters often found themselves in the underwear, dammit. She stretched out on her side, and tugged him down so they were facing each other.

Now they could sneak looks without being...well, all obvious about it. "How's this?"

Timothy chanced a quick glance downward. Yep, he could still see nipples. He nodded a little. "'s good," he mumbled and then he leaned in to kiss her, because that way, he'd be able to touch them as well, without - like - using his hands and stuff. Which was far more subtle. Yeah, subtle and sneaky and stuff.

She met his kiss with relief. That meant snugging up close again, and this time, she could feel his warm skin against hers, pressing belly to belly. And...things. Fascinating things. She slipped an arm around him, propping herself up on her other arm, very much liking the feeling of skin-to-skin while she kissed him.
It made the experience have a whole new side, or something.

The little voice in the back of his mind wasn't too happy with her being sort of a little on top of him. But Timothy didn't care. He rather liked it. In fact, it was one of the nicer things happening in this series of nice things happening. He nipped her bottom lip, purring loudly, and sort of tilted his hips a little. There were only two layers of clothes between them. There. It was an intoxicating idea.

"Mmmmnnn," she sighed happily, kissing him eagerly, pressing and experimenting with pressure, which was made a whole new thing again, with fewer clothes. Timothy did something and suddenly....there.

She froze slightly, and approached again with caution, moving to press s-l-o-w-l-y with her hips.

That was ....
Yes, it most definitely was. Timothy's eyes slitted with pleasure and he made a small, sniffly sound. The one that generally indicated that he was very much enjoying himself in the best sort of way. And he could definitely smell her now. That - different Kate-smell. The one he really liked. Really, really liked.

The kiss sort of happened, and it was an excuse to pull him close, arms around him (naked back, skin-to-skin), feeling the softness and the warmth and the heat and the hard parts, and everything in between. Suddenly her breath came a little harder, and her mouth on his felt different. Like she needed more. Wanted. His enthusiasm fed hers, and her mind raced ahead. Instead of words, they held fuzzed images and things colored by desire and no idea how quite to get there.
But it seemed as though it might be a fun journey.

Timothy's hip movements gradually got a little faster. It wasn't really a conscious decision - more like his body taking over. They were practically naked. The very thought was enough to make him feel dizzy and eager and very much in the need of friction. The barbs were visible through his underwear now, like small, hard lumps, but for once he didn't care. At all.

Visible, and she could feel them. The friction was making her tremble, and her kisses grew breathier and wetter, while her hands slid down his back, beneath his underwear to stroke across the smooth skin there.

The barbs felt larger than she remembered, when she snuck that peek, back in his room. They felt larger, but not gigantic or anything. Maybe....

She carefully broke the deep kiss, changing to smaller kisses, so she could breathe and talk. Whisper, rather.

"Timothy...I want to see you. Without clothes." Her hands circled on his rump, and she pressed against him, grinding lightly.

He made a small, humming sound, not really paying attention to what she was saying. And then his kissing stopped and his hands stilled on her skin. "...ehm, what?" She couldn't have said, what he thought she might have said.

Her expression was flushed, eyes bright and lips red from their kissing. "This," she whispered, kissing him again, pushing his underwear down gently, moving slowly.

Okay. He could handle this. His girlfriend wanted to see him naked. That was cool. Girls wanted to - do stuff like that too. Naked. As in - taking his clothes off. Timothy made another small, sniffly sound, this one edging a little closer to not-quite-happy. "O-okay." And then, since it had worked last time he quickly added, "You have to take yours off too. All of it." If he was going to die of embarrassment, he was so going to see her breasts first.

"Okay," she whispered. She shivered a little, fretful of him seeing her, excited they were here doing this, and feeling his anxiety. She herself was starting to feel a little doubt---what if he hated what he saw? She was nothing like Miss Rogue or Miss Munroe.
What if he broke up with her after she was naked?
She slowly pulled her hands back from him, sitting up so she could try to get to the clasp on the back of her bra. A little voice inside her told her that he was supposed to be trying this, not her, but then again, this wasn't a movie. Her cheeks were growing darker red, and she looked at her feet as she attempted to get her clasp undone.

Timothy was torn between looking at her - she was taking her bra off, her bra - and looking down as he got his own underwear off. She'd see them Properly. Stupid, stupid ugly cat-things. The lure of looking at her won out though and he by no means looked as if he didn't like what he saw. At all. And the purr was only growing louder.

There was an artfulness to hiding; and she felt she was doing a pretty good job of it with a well-placed leg or arm. Finally succeeding with getting her bra off, she looked over at him as he finished, hearing his purr. Before she looked at him fully, she leaned over and kissed him. She saw the distressed look in his eyes, and was determined to stop it before it grew.

She reached out and clasped his wrist with her hand, finishing the kiss. "Okay," she whispered, seeing his blush, feeling hers creeping along her cheeks. She swallowed, grabbing onto every ounce of bravery she had within her. "Here's how we'll do this. I'm going to close my eyes, and you look, and then we'll switch, how's that?"

Watching him look would be almost too difficult. Maybe it was the coward's way out, but she couldn't think of any other way to do it.

After a moment, she closed her eyes tightly, and sat back. It didn't stop her blush, but it stopped her from fainting out of embarrassment.

He'd nodded at her suggestion, but when she closed her eyes he almost looked away. It felt - almost, like, bad to be doing this, even though it was her own suggestion. Looking at her like this.
On the other hand - bad was kind of exciting.

He let his eyes drift down, pausing quite a long while at her chest. And returning after a quick trip all the way down her body.

Breasts. Heh.

His eyes darted down again. Not that he could see all that much, with the way he was sitting.

He cleared his throat and said, "Your turn." He wished his voice would soon stop doing that thing it did, when it got all high and stuff. It made him sound nervous. Which he was, but that was beside the point. Totally.

She opened one eye, and then the next.

He hadn't made any throw-up sounds, which was good. He hadn't said anything at all, actually, which set her into a bit more of a panic than she'd thought.

Waiting until he had his eyes closed, she watched his eyelids to make sure he wasn't peeking, even waving her hands in front of his eyes to make sure.

Then she looked, slowly, feeling her blush come on full force.

Really, it wasn't as bad as he'd have her believe.

"Okay," she said carefully. "Now what do we do?"

Timothy kept his eyes closed. "I don't know," he mumbled. He sort of wanted to go back to the being close and rubbing but he couldn't think of a way to put it that wouldn't make it sound - sort of stupid.

He opened one eye slowly. "We could - ehm - like - "

Think, Timothy, think! What would Remy say?

"I wanna kiss you." Okay, so maybe not that exactly, but it was a good way to open up to get closer. And then rubbing could just sort of happen, right.

She watched him open his eye, and then he said the magic words. She smiled, and leaned in so he could kiss her.

"Good idea. Very good idea."

They were going to feel skin-on-skin...the idea was scary and exciting and she couldn't think at all, except to kiss him.

Mmm, that was good. And the he realized that he could feel something that had to be a nipple. He felt a nervous laugh bubbly up but managed to suppress it and tried to direct the sudden nervous energy into the kissing instead. It worked. Sort of. He did end up fidgeting a bit, which sort of made her brush against him more. So that wasn't really working. Or, like, it was.

Timothy didn't really think as far as to try and hide anything. He just stood there, his nostrils vibrating a little. She smelled nice. She looked nice too. Very. And he had absolutely no idea about what to do with himself. All he could think about was, that he looked weird and now she was seeing it. Them. Properly.
The kiss was nice of course - and completely naked and everything - but - yeah. Stupid cat things.

She could still feel his hesitancy in this, and was determined to not let it paralyse him. A part of her brain gibbered at her that they were naked and that he'd seen her naked and she'd seen him naked...but there was no time for that right now. Wrapping an arm around him to pull him close, she pressed herself lightly against him, kissing him a bit harder.
Then...she felt...was that...? It was.
Her heart suddenly beat at the speed of light.

Oh.
Ohohoh - he felt skin. Right there. Her skin.

Suddenly the problem with the barbs seemed far less important. Or maybe he'd just forgotten how to think.

Success.
Kate found a new definition for success, one that suddenly responded with no hesitations, enthusiasm and plenty of warm skin.
Success.

Funny, how kissing her right now felt different. Lots more wet for one. In a good way. It also seemed to Timothy as if they were in the completely wrong position for this, which lead to a bit of gentle pushing. Trying to make her lie down on her back.

His gentle pushes nudged her to roll to her back...then to reach underneath her to get rid of a rock that was in the utterly worst place for that position.
Her hands were free to roam now, and she let them, thrilling in the fact that there were no clothes to get in her way. None!
She could feel his wiry muscles moving, beneath her palms. And she suddenly needed more kissing. Kissing was like air, now. Her breathing sped up, and she felt herself flush with both nerves and excitement.

He could so feel - stuff. Timothy's breathing had gotten very quick as well and when he nibbled her bottom lip his bite was a little more aggressive. Not enough to break skin, but still noticeable. This was - the best thing ever. He rubbed his face against her shoulder, trying to smell her armpits without her really noticing it. Because she smelled so good.

His aggressive little nibbling made her smile a bit, because he was obviously trying to shake things up. When he rubbed his nose against her shoulder, she brought both arms up to scratch his back lightly, pressing little licking kisses to his neck, rubbing her cheek against his shoulder lightly.
How odd, that she was feeling slightly dizzy while lying down.
It was a good kind of dizzy.

Timothy was making tiny little movements. It wasn't a conscious thing really; his body was just busy trying to align itself. At least as far as certain parts went. In fact, his body seemed to have a handle on everything right now. Kinda.

She'd been unaware of how she was breathing far deeper and faster breaths, until she tried to figure out why she was dizzy. Concentration on that made her also aware of Timothy's little subtle motions, which pressed against things, and...
Wow. That was really....er, hard.
She'd likely have a bruise on her thigh tomorrow. But it was such a small price to pay. With a little turn of her head, she found his ear and started nibbling on the lobe.

Almost there.
Sadly, Timothy's body hadn't really quite understood finesse it seemed. And as far as the locations went it was a bit off too. Which meant that his small hip thrust ended up being a somewhat painful experience.
" ... ow."

"....ow," she echoed, agreeing, even as she patted his shoulder. "You okay?" She kept her voice a whisper, and pressed a kiss to his neck.
She wanted to look and see if it had turned into something really hard. Wood or rock or something. It was a silly idea, but it certainly would have explained the hard poke into her leg. While they were talking a bit....
"This feels really nice. Your skin feels really nice."

She hoped he hadn't, like...broken himself. Biys were supposed to be really delicate down there.

He made a soft sound in agreement with her statement regarding kisses and then shifted a little, wincing. "I'm sorry," he said, since she'd said ow too. And then he bend his head to kiss her again, hoping that he'd manage to make her forget that he obviously didn't know what he was doing. Oh man, why did this stuff had to be so hard? One of his legs slid between her thighs as he licked her lips a little.

"It's okmmmm," she said, kissed into silence. Again, her arm slid around him, trying to think of Remy's dance class and how that might help things here.
Of course, they were laying down, so the answer wasn't really there. But they were doing okay. Nobody's gotten an elbow in the eye yet, and that was something.
His leg slid between her thighs, which meant she had to make room for it. Oh, man. And...then...nope, it didn't feel broken. Her breathing was getting all funny again.

Timothy completely forgot the fact that things were a little sore. Because said things were now also in close contact with - ohohoh - His eyes rolled back a little and he started make those small, eager, sniffly noises that normally accompanied their - homework sessions. This was so good. So so so good. And naked.

He was making those noises again, and moving, and it was so very nice, but not completely so because he wasn;t quite in the right place.He was sort of pressing alongside, sort of, at least when she moved her hips like so, but it was impossible to really tell because neither one of them were really trying to look.

She was moving.

Timothy's nose started vibrating for real and then his whole face scrunched up as his hips jerked a little. When he opened his eyes he looked distinctly unfocused - and he could feel something wet on her skin. He'd have been devestated if he hadn't felt all sort of fuzzy. Like if there was absolutely no blood coming through to his brain.

What?
WHAT?
He moved, breathed abit funny and then....her skin was a little wet.
Oh. Ohhh.

His expression was a little dazed, and he looked so vulnerable that she simply kept her arms around him, holding very still.
Planning. Plotting. Mother Nature was clearly only going to help them so far on this, it would seem.
It was time to either start looking up stuff in books again, or else they were going to have to look to see what they were doing.

Either way, the sun felt nice, the breeze also felt nice on naked skin, and she had muffins for them in a bag.

She glanced at Timothy again, to see if he was starting to snap out of it. He'd better not try to fall asleep there. That stuff was sticky.

As the blood slowly started seeping back to his brain the embarrassment started growing. He hid his face in her hair. Maaaan, it so wasn't fair. And now she was all - and he was all - and he could smell it. Ew. He lifted his head a little, looking at her. "... ehm sorry?"

She kissed him, then looked at him, and smiled. "Don't be. I think this is one of those things that will need to take lots and lots of practice, you know? And I like feeling your skin against mine." She looked over at the bag and other things they brought up. "My bandana is in that bag over there. There's bottled water, too. For cleanup."

Somehow, 'sorry' wasn't the first thing in her mind as she'd imagined the perfect day....

He got to his feet and went to get the things, very much aware that he was naked and that she could see him as he moved over to her bag. He could be cool. Kinda. He returned with the bandana and a bottle of wtare and carefully wetted the fabric before dabbing her skin with it. Not quite sure if he should scrub at it or not. Probably not, since girls tended to have sensitive skin and stuff.

"I liked feeling you too." As if she couldn't guess that. From - his reaction.

Ooo. Watching him walk while he was naked was fascinating. And having him dab at her skin with a coolish cloth...well, he could see her naked, too, which was only fair, but...maybe they were going to survive this, after all.
She grinned at his confession. "Yeah? Think you'd want to try again sometime?"
She wasn't feeling all that self-conscious anymore, mainly because he was acting like it wasn't a big thing. Which was a relief, because anxiety took a lot of energy.

"Hungry? Breakfast is in that bag..."

He nodded a little and the suggestion of a repeat performance - and then he nodded again, more eagerly at the mention of breakfast. He was famished. "Yeah. Only, I think - maybe we should have, like, acondomreadynexttime," he mumbled, not at all sure how that would go down. But he'd remembered his decision to be responsible - now that the pressure had been lifted. As it were.

She blinked. And then laughed, playfully swatting him lightly on the shoulder. "Say it faster next time, why don't you?" Sitting up, she glanced down at the clean spot he'd made. "Thanks. Let's get dressed and then have those muffins."
Yeah. They'd survive this just fine.

Did people normally just float?

2005-08-11T06:19:38Z

Who: Timothy and Kate
When: 3^rd day of their stay at Kate's parents' place
Where: The much-mentioned lake
What: Swimming lessons. And kissing.

Three days had passed since they arrived at Kate's family's house. Her parents and grandmother greeted them both with hugs and smiles, and the grand tour of their small cabin home didn't take very long at all. Timothy was shown to a small guest bedroom done in pale blue with a dark brown rug. The furniture in their home was heavy, polished wood with green and blue accents. Pine trees and spruce trees were all over the yard; birches served to offer shade. Birds, squirrels, chipmunks and other wildlife were everywhere. A big netted hammock was strung between two shade trees, and the yard sprawled on forever. Very tall bushes served to seperate the neighbor's house from theirs. There was a concrete patio out beside the large garage, and that's where the grill was. Supper for the past three days had been cooked on the grill, to celebrate summer.
The air smelled of sweetgrass, pines and lakes.

This morning, Kate rousted them both up early-ish, knocking on his bedroom door at 8:30. "Hey, Timothy! Come on...we'll eat breakfast and then it's time for a swimming lesson! Grandma said we could use her bike, so you can use mine and I'll use hers."

Timothy opened the door, blinking sleepily. He'd woken up early, as per usual, but had gone back to sleep. All the fresh air, not to mention the wildlife - the wildlife that had to be watched - was taking its toll on him. "Eh, what timeis it?" he asked, yawning. He wasn't too keen on the whole swimming idea, but Kate had said she'd be wearing her new swim suit which certainly made the whole idea a little more interesting. A lot more interesting actually.

"It's breakfast time," she grinned, very bright-eyed and bushy-tailed this morning. "Come on. I'll get it started, and you go ahead and wake up and stuff."
The house was strangely silent, except for what racket Kate was making as she bounded away to the kitchen.

Timothy got washed and dressed and then headed for the kitchen as well. Breakfast sounded like a good idea. And he liked that the house was quiet. IT made it feel a little as if they were all alone.

By the time he was done getting washed and cleaned up, she had the French Toast and bacon cooked. The table had milk and orange juice set out, as well as peanut butter, butter and maple syrup. "Good timing!" The food was brought over and set out on plates. "Grandma went to the neighbor's. They always talk about their soap operas this time of day."

Timothy sat down, almost drooling a little. He liked Kate's idea of breakfast. It beat Mum's cornflakes and oatmeal. And fruit. Ew. "I don't get that people want to watch soaps. People just keep doing the same things over and over and over." He wrinkled his nose a little and took a large bite of French Toast.

"Yah," she agreed, nodding. "But I think that it gives Grandma something to talk about, and it reminds her of other people that she knew that maybe did stuff like they do on the soaps? Besides, it's an excuse for her to go visit Old Missus Nikko and have morning coffee and they gossip and knit." She sopped her french toast in syrup and ate it before it grew wet enough to fall off the fork.

Timothy chewed thoughtfully. Not that he was really thinking much about anything. Except perhaps swimwear. "Is that lake place far away?" he asked, not really feeling in the mood for very long bike rides.

Her grin was wide, and she shook her head. "Here in Minnesota, you practically open the back door and fall into a lake. This one that I'm taking you to is a very special one. It's about ten minutes' away on bike." She crunched on her bacon, eyeing him thoughtfully. "Have you ever been swimming before?"

Timothy shrugged a little. "Sort of. Like the community pool and stuff. But I don't like the chlorine." And sometimes, water was sort of deep. And stuff. He took a piece of bacon as well, biting down on it with sharp teeth. Crunch.

"No chlorine here," she replied with a wider smile. "Your nose is going to love it. Even I can smell all the neat stuff around the lakes." She finished quickly, sipping her juice as she waited until he was done.

He grinned and kept eating. For a boy his size he had quite an appetite so it took a while. Finally, he was done. He wiped his mouth and looked at her, expectantly. "So, should we go now?"

She rose from her seat when he was done, and started clearing away the dishes. "Go change into your swim trunks, and grab a beach towel from the top shelf in the bathroom," she said. "I'll rinse these and grab a few things. The bikes are outside. Better grab your sneakers."

Timothy hurried back to his room and changed. He want to get a towel and gave himself a critical look in the mirror. It really wasn't fair that you couldn't tell that he had been working out and stuff. Although if he really flexed you could kinda see a bicep. Or tricep. Something -cep anyway. He went outside, his sneakers in one hand, squinting a little against the sun.

She was already put there; the dishes were soaking in a sudsy sink. She had her new suit on, but a pair of shorts pulled overtop and a towel draped over her shoulders, so not much could really be seen. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail. Old sneakers finished out the outfit. Her grandma's bike was one of the old-fashioned kind, complete with a basket in the front. A bag of some sort was stuffed into the basket. Kate's bike was a sleeker ten-speed, although it was still a girl's bike. "Ready?" She was excited, clearly, and all smiles.

He wasn't all that happy about the girly bike, but she was looking all happy and everything so he didn't want to bring it up. He just climbed on, nodding. "Yep. Lead the way." He hoped it wasn't a terribly huge lake.

If he wasn't happy about the girl's bike, she didn't notice it. "Okay!" They started out, Kate waving and calling to her Grandmother sitting on Old Missus Nikko's porch, gossiping with her friend. Her grandmother waved back.
Then they were down the dirt road, moving past some very close and rather ominous-looking ponds that flanked the narrow road, pointing out deer-tracks, rabbits, trees that had been blasted by lightning, a fish eagle in the sky; all manner of things. It was a leisurely bike ride, and they at last veered off along a very bumpy trail that went between trees and bushes. He could smell the lake before they got there---fresh water, a thousand fascinating scents, from wet stone to wild animals, plants and fish. They came out from the bushes, trail ending and opening up into a small sandy beach. The lake was quite large, and very smooth and blue. "Here we are!" She got off her bike, and looked at him.

Timothy's nostrils were moving like crazy, trying to capture all the scents. His fingers twitched a little every time a bird flew overheard and he was dying to jump off the bike and go tearing through the landscape, trying to catch up with some of the animals. But he didn't. There was swim lessons, after all. And batching suits. He climbed off the bike and looked at her, expectantly. It didn't look that bad. The lake.

Grinning at the expression on his face, she put the kickstand down and left the bike where it was, walking to the water's edge before coming back to him, removing her shoes. "You ready? It's nice, isn't it? I chose this lake because it's really shallow and clear, so it’ll be warm." Once her shoes were off, her shorts followed. Her suit was a one-piece, deep green and light green stripes. The back plunged deeply, the legs were cut high. It made her look a little taller, or leggier. The front was simple, and tied up behind her neck. As with most suits, it fit very snugly. She tossed her towel over the bike seat. "Put your towel over the seat, so it won't be too hot when you ride back." She watched his reaction to her new suit surreptitiously.

He liked it. he most definitely liked it. It made her look all pretty and adult and model-like. And he could totally see her breasts. Yeah, he definitely liked it. He did as she suggested and then got his sneakers off before walking over to her. Smiling a little. His nose was moving, trying to separate out her scent from the other scents on the air. His own swim trunks were blue and sensible. He ran a hand through his hair. "So, ehm, what do we do?" He cast another look at her new swimsuit. Discreetly. Yeah.

She grinned, and caught his hand up in hers, and took him to the water's edge. "Time to get our feet wet." The water was cooler than bath water, but not too much. The bottom was sandy and grainy, and the occasional snail shell and clam shell could be seen. Water bugs skimmed the surface. The sun shone brightly, hot on their shoulders, the sky was bright blue with a few white clouds. "Now hold still, and watch." Their feet looked pale beneath the sun-striped water. After a moment, several tiny, thin little minnows swam up and nibbled at their toes. It tickled.

His claws slid out as they moved into the water. He felt more confident that way. The minnows elicited a startled laugh and then he let go of her to bend down and have a proper look. "Those are cool. What are they?" It seemed as if Timothy was a city boy, despite his love for the tree in the yard at home.

She giggled a bit, bent over and pointed to the little schools of silver fishes. "They're minnows. Tiny little fishes, and really really fast. They'll come and nibble at your toes when you hold still."

Timothy froze in place - and then one of his hands broke the surface. lightning quick. He had to give it a try after all. They were fish.

She gave a tiny shriek and jumped, laughing. The fish scattered, although he might have touched one. It was hard to say. Kate laughed and laughed. "My GOD, you scared me half to death. I bet you scared the scales off the minnows, too. You're fast!"

He grew a little, even if the stupid fish had escaped. He'd show them though. Later. Timothy, the Master Hunter. Yeah.

This was fun. He grinned at her. "I'll give you a head start if you wanna see just how fast I am," he said, wiggling his eyebrows a little.

"Oh, really..." She posed with her hands on her waist, trying very hard to show nonchalance...before she turned and ran, splashing through the shallow water and laughing. "Come on, slowpoke, let's see what you've got!"

He let out a mewl and raced after her, a little cautiously at first. He wasn't going to slip or something and look like an idiot. Once he felt confident that the bottom of the lake wouldn't suddenly turn to a death-trap he increased his pace and once he was close enough - he jumped.

She heard him splashing behind her, and her speed was greatly hampered by the fact that she couldn't stop laughing...and the fact that she really didn't want to get away. His jump happened just as she was turning her head to see him, and she squealed as he tackled her. They went down with a tremendous splash, cushioned by water and soft sand. Grabbing onto him, she made sure he got his share of splashing water. Once they got used to it, it wasn't too cold at all.

Timothy wasn't terribly fond of water. Unless it was really hot and he was in a shower. But this was fun. He splashed at her, laughing loudly. There was also the added bonus of her swimsuit now being all wet and even more clingy. And clingy was good. Very good. Very, very good. Especially because he had to touch her. To tickle her. Yeah. That was only fair after all.

Did water make her even more ticklish? It was hard to tell. She tickled him back best she could, laughing and squirming and generally having a wonderful, silly time. Tickling, of course, gave the additional advantage of touching his skin (of which there was a lot, and somehow made even more enticing because he was wearing a swimsuit, to boot.)

This was great. Timothy tickled her with renewed vigour and if his hands sort of - brushed against her - in Places - he could hardly be blamed for it. With the way she was squirming and all.

She gave a little squawk, splashed and tickled back, even getting up a bit to tackle him in the shallow water. Now completely soaked, she made sure he was too. "You're scaring the minnows!" she scolded, even as she tickled him more.

"Fish are made for scaring," he said, laughing. It didn't make any sense really, but who needed sense when you had a really pretty girlfriend? In a swimsuit?

"Says the guy that about made me jump out of my skin, splashing at those poor little fishes," she laughed back, and took advantage of his position to steal a kiss.

He kissed her back, seemingly happy with this new turn of events. She tasted a bit of French Toast and a lot of syrup. His purr started up. Loudly.

Well! Since he wasn't being stingy with those kisses, she decided to settle in beside him for a nice long embrace. The sun was very warm on them, but the water was the perfect coolish temperature. She finally ended the kiss by rubbing his cheek with her nose, smiling. "I think you're going to like swimming," she offered with another light peck to his lips.

"Hmm," he said, fairly certain that he liked kissing and cuddling better. But willing to go along with it. He looked at her. "Okay, what do we do? Or - what do I do?"

"Well..." she pondered, snuggling up close to him. The really nice thing about cuddling in water was that it made them both a little bit bouyant. There was a very slow, little currant as the waves licked the shore, making them both rise and fall a bit with the water's motion. "How are you with water? Are you okay with it, or does this much open water kind of freak you out a little? When I was learning to swim, I was really freaked out by deep water and plants in the water." She offered that last part up, hoping he wouldn't think she was a big baby or anything.

"I'm okay with it," he said, a bit too quickly perhaps. No way was he going to admit that he did feel just a little bit apprehensive to his girlfriend. Nope. He sau up and tried to look cool. "You know. it's fine." Nodding a little. Yeah, completely cool. And casual. And stuff.

She seemed a little surprised, and a little embarrassed that she'd thought he might be a little freaked by the lake. She'd been, after all. And she as much as admitted it, which made her feel like she was nine years old. "Okay. We won't need to work with the beginning part, then." Standing up, streaming water, she held out her hand to take his before they started towards the deeper water.

Beginning part? There was a beginning part? That they were skipping? Timothy could feel his heart speed up, but in for a penny and all that. He took her hand, trying not to tighten his fingers too much and followed her. It was sort of creepy, the way the water suddenly got deeper.

She walked them out to water that reached about mid-thigh, and stopped, squeezing his hand. "Okay. This is good for a start. Now, have you done any sort of swimming before? Floating, or dog-paddling?" The water was still very clear, although there were some shadows here and there that weren't noticeable in the shallows.

He shook his head a little, looking down at his feet. And then he looked back up at her. "What? - Ehm, yeah, I guess. A little. Just, you know ..." He trailed off. The water looked sort of deep now.

"What's wrong?" She looked at him closely, and stepped next to him, holding his hand and almost touching him with her shoulder.
The sun went behind a cloud, and although the water was still clear, it seemed a bit darker now. The shadows were very deep-looking.

"Nothing," he said, not sounding all that convincing. And then he added, in a very small voice, "It just sorta looks deep. And stuff." He shouldn't admit to being nervous. She'd think he was wimp now. But it did. Look deep-

She smiled and wrapped her arms around him. "Then let's go back to the shallower water." The sun came out from behind the cloud again; the water turned bright crystal and blue...but now he knew where the shadows were. "Let me show you the little alcove I was thinking about before. It's a great place to start. Besides, the water's really nice and warm there." She kissed his ear, and took his hand, leading them back up on the beach. "Here, watch your step. It's through here." She led them down a tiny dirt path, through some aspen and birch trees, and back to the lake's edge.

A long time ago, a tree had fallen over from a windstorm, and into the water. Long dead, it proved to be a place for other foliage to grow on, resulting in a leafy barrier that jutted out about thirty feet from the shore, separating this area from the rest of the lake. The sandy bottom was very shallow and golden; the water was clear and as she promised, very warm. The other side was blocked a bit by a large sandy bar covered with blackberry bushes. "How's this?"

He nodded quickly again, doing his very best to pretend that he hadn't been nervous or anything. It was sort of, almost, in a way, for her sake. Kinda. Stupid water. He did enjoy that temperature was a little higher here and the shallowness meant that his heart stopped racing the way it had done. This was so much better. It really was. He rubbed his nose and looked at her. "Okay. What do I do then?" This was proving to be not as easy as he had hoped. But he was going to learn how to swim. And then he'd be really good at it too. And impress her. And - stuff.

"Let's wade out into the water a bit." She led him out until it was about knee high. "This is good." She sat down in the water, and looked up at him, tugging him to do likewise. "Okay. Float on your back. Show me how you do it."

He sat down and then looked at her. "Ehm, I don't really. I mean, if I wanna float I'll float on like one of those styrofoam thingies or something." Did people normally just float?

She smiled. "Okay. Everybody floats. And the nice thing is, it's easy as pie. I need you to trust me, okay? I'm going to put my arms out..." she got to her knees in the water, and put her arms out a distance apart. "Now, I want you to lay back on the water. I'm going to put my arms behind your shoulders, and the small of your back. The water's going to hold you up. I'll just provide a bit of stabilization, okay? Don't worry about keeping your head above water, because my arm behind your shoulders is going to help with that. Ready?"

He nodded and then did as she told him. It felt awkward and he wasn't quite sure she really knew what she was talking about. Water seemed kind of - flimsy or something. But it could hold up destroyers and stuff so she might be right. And cruise ships. He closed his eyes as he stretched out, realizing that he was indeed floating.

"Perfect! See? Can you feel how the water's cradling you? Okay, now I want you to raise your hips a little. It sounds weird, but it's going to be easier for you not only to float, but to control what you're doing if your hips are closer to the top of the water. Instead of pretending to sit in an easy chair, I want you to pretend you're laying on a table top, okay?" She kissed his forehead suddenly, and smiled. I"ve still got you, and if you reach down you'll be able to feel the bottom, if you need to. You're doing great." This was really awesome, being able to share this with him.

Timothy knitted his brows a little, trying to do as she told him to. It seemed to work. And it gave him a reason to show off his abs. Or, like, almost abs. He cracked one eye open at the kiss, looking up at her. "Like this?"

"Like that," she beamed, nodding and looking at his abs before looking back at him. "Okay. Are you ready for me to move hy arms, do you think? Are you starting to get the feel for this, or do you need a bit more time? There's no rush, or anything." She was warm, too, and her arms lightly touched the small of his back and along his shoulders.

He kinda liked that she was touching him. Then again, if he said she should stay, she'd just think he was chicken or something. "Yeah, I've got this," he said, lying very still in the water. Almost a little stiffly. It was sort of odd - floating.

"Okay." Slowly, she removed her arm, bracing his back, letting him feel the weightlessness along his spine. She kept her arm up under his shoulder for a moment longer, then slowly lowered it more until she was no longer touching him. "....and you're floating."

He looked up - and promptly stopped floating, sinking down instead. It startled him a little - but curiosity would not be curbed. "Aw." His disappointment was very audible.

That brought a grin to her face, and she leaned in to kiss him as he sat on the bottom. "No, not 'aw'. You did well, That's the best way to come out of a back float, too. You let your body do that natural hinge thing, just like that. Floating takes a little practice, is all."

He snorted a little, clearly displeased with the attempt. It couldn't be that hard. Rats!
Then he looked up at her, kitten-eyed. Who knew, it might work and make her want to snuggle. He could do with a break.

The eyes.
Of course she had no defence against the eyes; all she knew is that they made him even more appealing, and that she suddenly felt an urge to cuddle and pet him. Fortunately, the water was very shallow, and she was able to crowd close and hug him tightly, smiling. She kissed his mouth, smelling like fresh water, and bumped her nose against his, affectionately. A happy victim of the kitten-eyes.

This was much better. Timothy purred happily, basking in the attention. He'd nail this swimming-thing. And if she should ever be attacked by alligators he could save her from them. And claw them. And stuff. It seemed as if he had in fact paid attention in Remy's class, even if the verbs didn't always stick. He ran one hand down her back. He liked that he was able to feel her skin. Just like that.

He was purring, which always did strange and delightful things to her insides, and he had his hand on her back. Her bare back, which meant that she'd gotten a really good swimsuit. Her arms remained around him, feeling his wet, bare skin while she kissed his ear gently. This was turning out to be a fantastic day. A terrific swimming lesson. This was even better than 'homework'. Almost.

"This," he said, doing his best to sound casual. Cool. Cajunish, just without the accent

2005-07-26T05:37:33Z

Who: Timothy and Kate
When: Last Saturday (b/d)
Where: Kate's room
What: Timothy decides to put the Cajun's teachings to the test. And no, he isn't going to conjugate French verbs ;)

Saturday was one of those impossibly sticky hot days when just one shower would not do. She'd already taken two; the latest one not a half hour ago. The fan she'd purchased sat on her desk, and was aimed right at her on the bed. The fresh tank and shorts she wore were helping to keep her cool, but she didn't know how New Yorkers and other southerners could handle this horrible heat.

It vexed her that Timothy didn't seem to mind it so much. Then again, he'd grown up in this hellacious sort of temperature, right? She wadded her pillow beneath her chin and shoved her homework off the bed with an irritable grunt. There just wasn’t anything she wanted to do, it seemed like. Except maybe feel sorry for herself that she was so wretchedly bored and miserable and hot.

Timothy had come across cake in the kitchen. He was fairly certain that it was okay to eat some of it since it would have been put away if it hadn't been okay. And cake placed behind a cereal box in the cupboard was clearly not put away. Not properly anyways. It had occurred to him that sharing this fortunate windfall might score him a few cheap points so he put one slice on a plate - seeing as how you could hardly tell he had taken any if he only took a single slice - and got a bottle of the strawberry syrupy thing Kate liked and a coke for himself before walking down to her room.

It was hot but there was the faintest smell of rain on the wind. Maybe even a hint of ozone? Thunder would be so cool.

He scratched at her door.

The odd noise at her door caught her attention, and she blinked. Timothy? But...he was busy. Napping or something. And it'd been ages since he’d scratched at her door.

She'd missed it. And her grumpy mood was already starting to fade. She jumped up from her bed, tugging her clothes into place as she opened the door.

Smiled. It was Timothy, bearing goodies. "Hello! Come in!" He was ushered inside and she closed and locked the door. "How are you?"

He put the things down on her bedside table before flopping down on her bed. "I'm good." He yawned hugely and smiled up at her. "I couldn't sleep any more though. It was too hot in my room. What are you doing?" He sounded genuinely curious.

"A whole lotta nothing," she declared wearily, flopping beside him on the bed. "I've just taken my five hundredth shower, give or take a couple, trying to keep cool. I can't concentrate on homework. I'm so bored I could scream, and so far, I haven't been able to come up with anything entertaining." She flopped again for emphasis, and grinned at him.

He snickered and rolled over so he could sniff her hair. He kinda liked it when she was sweating a little. But he wasn't going to tell her that. Girls could get really funny about smells and stuff. "Want me to come up with something we could do?" he asked, feeling especially daring. He'd been practicing his swagger, which made a world of difference to his self-perception.

She grabbed him and gave him a squeeze as he bent to sniff her hair, then released him with a nod. Clearly curious. "Sure." One thing she knew was that it would not entail schoolwork of any kind. She hoped it wouldn't entail going outside, but she couldn't begin to guess what he might come up with. "What do you have in mind?"

He oomphed a little at the squeeze and then he started shifting around till he was more or less facing her hip.
Right. This ought to be east. He reached over and placed the palm of his hand carefully, thrilled when he realized that he could actually feel her through her shorts. "This," he said, doing his best to sound casual. Cool. Cajunish, just without the accent. Please, please, please, let her like this.

Now, that was something that she hadn't been expecting at all. Her eyes widened a bit, her cheeks blazed...but the somewhat casual way he spoke, coupled with his hand (his hand! THERE!)served to catch her immediate and undivided attention. "Th...that?" She was finding it a little warm in here, yep. Maybe needing a little more breath. Her heart was certainly beating faster.

His purr started up. She liked it. She liked it. Or, like, she didn't hate it or anything. And she wasn't telling him to stop either so he shifted a little so he could apply a more even pressure on her - there. She was all warm and stuff. And he thought he might be able to smell her which was like - wow. He looked up at her from under lowered lashes. Slowly kneading her with the heel of his hand.

She was slightly stunned from this, because normally Timothy'd been so shy. Several frantic thoughts ran through her mind. Oh god, did I remember deodorant? I can feel myself sweating, and that's gross. Where did he learn to....? This feels so....What should I be doing? The way he just looked at he from under his lashes, makes me melt... She blinked a couple times, and her eyes fluttered closed as she exhaled heavily, trembling a little. He's never touched me there before...

Her legs parted a very tiny bit as her eyes opened a bit, looking at him through lowered lids.

Yes!
Score one for Timothy.

He drew his claws as far back as they would go and curled his fingers a little so his hand followed the curve she had there. She really was warm. He rubbed his cheek against her hip and thigh, still purring loudly. It had occurred to him that since she tended to be almost as nervous as he was, maybe she hadn't noticed that he was in fact nervous. Which would be good. Since he was the guy and everything. His nostrils flared a little as he picked up her scent.

She gave a little gasp, eyes opening wider as his hand...the pressure...and it felt so good and right, even though her stomach felt like it was turning to water. She pressed back against his hand without really intending to, only thinking about how very much she needed to kiss him. Her hand slid over his shoulder, caressing, while she tried to figure how to bring his head up to hers so she could kiss him.

Her breath was a little heavier now. It was getting kind of hard to think.

He tilted his head a little when he felt her fingers but he didn't move. Not when she was smelling this good. He made a small, growly sound in the back of his throat and rubbed his nose against her hip-bone. It was itching. He tried repeating the movement that had made her gasp. He had made her gasp. This was so cool.

She tried hard to keep quiet, to keep still, but then his hand did something that made her make a noise in the back of her throat. It was an embarrassing noise, sort of, but she couldn't help it. Her hand rubbed some more on his shoulder, and trailed down his ribs. Touch is good. Ian said. Her legs moved a bit more apart, beyond really caring what was proper now.

Because they were doing...this. Touching. Timothy was.

This was working. Timothy's purr increased as he wedged his hand between her legs. Not the most elegant of moves perhaps, but who knew when she decided they'd crossed some boundary that shouldn't be crossed. Stupid rules. He leaned up on one elbow and then he bowed his head. He had a feeling she might not appreciate this - but he had to smell her. It was a necessity. A need. An urge.

Boundaries only worked when you thought about them, and right now, Kate was a bit beyond any sort of rational thought. She'd been growing warm...but not in a hot-weather sort of way. Her breath was extremely shaky now, and her motions back against his hand were unmistakeable, if not the most rhythmic. Her breathing was heavier and filled with little noises.

Wow. Just - wow. Timothy rubbed his chin against her upper thigh and pulled his upper lip back a little, to taste her scent on the air. He was beginning to feel just a little bit short of breath himself. What, with the way she moved and all.
She was really beautiful and everything too.

Her noises were taking on a more desperate air, and her hand tugged at him again. She was really feeling the need to...do something, and she decided that it must mean she really needed to kiss him pretty badly. That usually solved everything, didn't it?
In the meantime, his hand and the friction he was making...she was slowly going out of her mind. How did he know...?
Timothy stayed where he was. Stubbornly. Remy had sounded as if this might work and he was loathe to interrupt his rhythm. He was matching her movements now. His free hand had moved up to her belly and was stroking it - mainly because he couldn't reach her breasts from where he was at. His own breathing had gotten just a little bit ragged as well.

Her belly muscles were tight under his hand, and his stroking on her skin, coupled with his other hand's motions were the winning combination. With a volley of small yelping moans, her hands gripped her blanket tight and she stiffened, trembling, her eyes clenched shut. Her thighs closed on his hand, increasing warmth and slightly damp fabric pressed against his palm and fingers. She stayed like that for a few seconds, before sagging back onto the bed, panting as though she'd been running.

Timothy stared at her as she - like - wow. The moment she closed her eyes closed he moved his head down to sniff her, moaning a little as well. This was - unbelievable. But then she got all panty and still and that made him a little nervous. He pulled himself away from his suddenly fragrant fingers and called, "Kate?" softly. Sounding a little bit nervous all of a sudden. She had liked it, right?

Her heartbeat had been very loud in her ears, and when she opened her eyes, there were little light splotches floating in the air---probably from having her eyes squinched shut so tightly. They went away, as she focused on him again, feeling all flushed and vulnerable...and very very good. The smile that rested on her lips was accompanied by glowy cheeks. "Hi." She whispered it, because she didn’t quite know how to answer the question in his voice. "...wow."

Okay. So she wasn't freaked out. That was good. He grinned up at her. Proudly. He'd made her feel like that. Yeah, Timothy - King of the Bedroom. He crawled up next to her, clearly influenced by her reaction, something his shorts did very little to conceal. He'd forgotten about that fact for the moment though. Because - yeah. And she was smiling and everything too.

He was never washing his hand again. For like, hours.

Finally she could kiss him. Feeling like she had to make up for lost time, she wrapped her arms around him, pulled him on top of her and did her level best to express how amazed she was, using tongue and lips.
And oh, could she feel how he'd been influenced. Especially with things being so warm and...alive. Down there. Both of them.
It made her all shivery again, which in turn made her kiss him breathless.

If he had only known she'd get all - like this, he'd have done this much sooner. Timothy kissed her back, rubbing against her, now that he wa sin teh perfect position for that. This was good. Shiveringly good even. His breathing got a little shallower.

She hadn't thought beyond kissing him. Fortunately, nothing seemed to require thought beyond this point. She could feel him against her, and it stole her breath away (in addition to the rubbing going on) and made her create more disgraceful noises. His breath was growing ragged, and that was both encouraging and exciting. Touch. Ian said Touch. Her hands slid down his back while she strove to press as much of herself against him as possible. Full-body touch. Well, expect for the part about being dressed.

He mewled a little as she moved against him, his own movements getting more frantic. This was - this was bad. He was still wearing his clothes. He was fairly certain he didn't have time to get them off though. Crap. Crapcrapcrap - ahh. His face scrunched up as his senses suddenly felt very, very overloaded.

Her breath panted against the side of his neck while she held him, waiting for her eyes to focus again. Her hands were on his rump, the fabric of his shorts feeling very warm. For a moment, she wondered why they'd stopped...and then it hit her.
Aw, geeze.
Her head lay back on the pillow, and she looked at him, keeping her arms and hands where they were. There was something just thrilling about knowing her hands were on her boyfriend's behind, after all.
She hadn't though about the fact that he'd now need a change of pants. Hadn't thought about anything at the time, really.

So this was one of the many reasons people got naked when doing things....and here she'd thought there was only one reason. This was all the fault of that stupid, stupid book.

Timothy's buttocks clenched a couple of times and then he hit his face in her neck, making small soft kitten noises. Crap. He just couldn't work up the energy to worry about it now. He felt damp and limp, like a wrung cloth. And Kate was warm and soft and fragrant. He yawned hugely and rubbed his nose against her ear.

Cuddling was quickly becoming a favorite thing to do with him. It also gave her a chance to find out which places on his neck would gain instant purrs, if she kissed them. His yawn was a good sign. Just this once, she didn't want to talk about what had happened, right away. It was simply too profound. But one thing had to be done. Turning her head a little bit, she smiled and whispered softly to him. "You're unbelievably wonderful. And anytime you have an idea like that again, I'm all for it."

That made his purr pick up again. "Yeah?" He grinned against her skin. The holidays could only come too slowly. Long, hot days - with nothing to do. Except now they had. He rolled off her and curled up on his side, his eyes already closing. It was hard work, this almost-sex business.

"Yeah," she whispered, and moved her pillow a little so the cool air would blow on them both. Watching Timothy drowse made her a little languid and sleepy as well. Maybe a short nap was in order. After that, it was time to find a place in one of her drawers where he could stash some spare clothes. In case this happened again. Hopefully often.

The thought left a definite smile on her lips as she fell to sleep beside him.

His blush was making her blush, but she couldn't seem to stop smiling

2005-06-21T05:34:15Z

Who: Timothy and Kate
Where: Timothy's room
When: Monday, during homework
What: The next level

Warning: Non-graphic sexual conduct. Also acute embarressment and sticky shorts.

They were both sitting on his bed, puzzling over the book between them, seeking out the answer to question number six in the homework. They'd been doing this for almost an hour now, and it really wasn't very fair because the question was a trick question and could be answered several different ways.
She was growing bored with it. Very bored. Glnacing over at him, she grinned a bit to see he was actually concentrating, which made for an excellent opportunity to ambush-kiss him, which made things far more interesting, very quickly. She leaned in, and did just that.

He made a surprised sound but didn't protest. Why would he? Kissing Kate was the very best thing ever. He purred and nibbled at her bottom lip, pushing a little closer. She smelled nice. Very nice. This was so much better than homework.

The book dropped...somewhere as she kissed, him, and she snuggled a little closer. "I don't know about you, but I need a break," she whispered. That nibbling business was really nice, and instead of hearing what he might want to suggest as a break, she kissed him again, nibbling on his own lower lip.

Timothy didn't really have any suggestions. Kissing made it, like, hard to think sometimes. And swallow. At least when you were kissing properly. He tried to deepen the kiss because inability to swallow really was a small price to pay after all. When you had the chance to kiss Kate.

Breathing could be a little difficult, too. But that could be fixed with a shift in position. The book fell to the floor and ended up under his bed, as she worked her way a little closer to him. She had to tilt her head a bit more, freeing up her nose a bit while seriously kissing him. This was far, far better than question number whatever-it-wa.

Oh yes. This was the real thing. Timothy's purr increased as he twisted, trying to get on top of her without actually breaking the kiss. He managed, if not gracefully. Ooooh. So good. Embarrassingly good really. He'd worry about that. In a moment. When his brain started working again.

Oh, yeah. Yes, this was wonderful, and she remembered she was going to talk to him about...talk to him...well, it could probably wait a little while. She shifted slightly, getting a little more comfortable while her arms wrapped around him. This kissing was pretty serious business, and the way her heart was beating so fast, her breath was coming a little short. And she was feeling very warm now. From the inside out. His body felt nice against hers, very nice, and she pressed back lightly.

He didn't even think about it. He just rubbed against her. Because, well, just because. It seemed like the thing to do. She was really, really soft. And warm. He rubbed his cheek and jaw against her face, which was fairly pointless seeing as how he lacked the glands that would have scent-marked her as his.

Her exhalation was a soft groan when he did that, and her eyes closed as she held him tight, rubbing back against him. Oh, god, it felt so good. A part of her mind reminded her she did not have those scarves on, but she was really too busy trying to brush her lips against his cheek to pay much mind to that.

He'd through about those scarves too. His jaw was feeling all funny and he ended up, breathing wetly against her skin, trying not to give in a sudden urge to bite her. Properly. Not nibble. Bite. He pushed back on his elbows and took a couple of very deep breaths, wrinkling his nose. It was so hard to think when she smelled, like, all nice and stuff.

Hard.

Oh no.

Ah, a natural break. She watched him push back on his elbows, stroking his cheek with her fingers, tracing along his brows...and she felt...was that..something in his pockets?
She doubted it.
But neither did she want him to jump away. Not just yet. It occurred to her that this was something good. Good for discussion...and maybe something else. She let her hand rest lightly on the small of his back, sliding her fingers through his belt loops to hold him in place.
"This is nice..." she whispered. Whispering made things okay, right?

Timothy's eyes flickered a little. Okay. She wasn't freaked out. That was good. And they were like - they had condoms after all. This was like a serious adult relationship. With - sex and stuff. Almost. Kinda. "You think so?" he whispered back at her, still very aware of the - throbbing. And stuff.

In answer to his question, she moved her leg so that it crossed his, below the knee, and pulled him down on top of her for another kiss. A kiss not long or involved, but definitely enthusiastic. "Absolutely," she whispered in his ear. "Don't you?"

Timothy threw caution to the wind and kissed her back just as enthusiastically. Seeing as how that was the easiest way to answer that question. Not to mention that this was the perfect position for tilting his hips a little and - oh yes. Oh yeah. Definitely nice.

His slight hip-tilting and then pressing suddenly made her tremble, and moan into the kiss. She really couldn't help it; it surprised her completely. It was just..too wonderful to examine at the moment. Her hand tightened on his waistband, and she tried drawing him even closer as her kiss turned into something a little more fervent.

Oh, oh, ooh. One of Timothy's hands slowly made its way under her shirt. How could anybody be that warm? and soft? And he could totally smell her. His jaw almost hurt a little now. He'd stopped purring but his breathing was loud.

Her own breathing was heavy, as though she'd run a very long way. She was feeling deliciously warm, and her hands slid along his back and sides, up and down while kissing him. She could feel him, and the very thought was kind of exciting, and scary. But the way he was moving made her feel almost dreamlike, although she was very clearly awake. His hand on her skin made her squirm a little, enjoying his touch.

He pulled at her, rolling over on his back and taking her with him, ending up with her more or less on top. Maybe that would help? If not, at least it made it easier to touch her breasts. They were right there. And all soft and inviting and - He cupped one of hands around her left breast, convinced that he could now die happy. And that he might would since he seemed t be unable to breathe. And swallow.

The new position drew her out of her fugue; certain adjustments and things needed to be made. A knee here, hand there, keep weight off of this thigh, but it provided many new possibilities. Possibilities such as what he was doing... what was he doing! He'd...oh, so nice. She'd never realized that could feel so good, and she actually leaned into his touch a little, closing her eyes and sort of tilting and pressing her hips, like he'd done for her. Her breathing was getting all ragged again.

That was perfect. The urge to bite her subsided a little, making it possible for him to explore this new territory fully. Nipples. Heeh. And then she did that hip-tilt thing and he made a sound not unlike a half-suppressed cough. Ohboy.

She wasn't sure if that noise was good or bad, so she froze, watching his expression for further information. Had she pressed too hard? She knew there were some delicate bits down there; didn't want to hurt him. She maintained contact while watching his face anxiously. "Is this okay?"

He stared up at her. Uncomprehendingly. Then he nodded, almost a bit frantically. She'd stopped? She couldn't stop! Not when - oh yes, much better.And his free hand could actually reach the curve right above her thigh. Yeah. Perfect.

She smiled, and started the motion again, this time very slowly and very deliberately, watching his reaction. She kept her balance by leaning most of her weight on one hand near his shoulder, while the other hand cupped the back of his neck. Kissing and moving and trying to breathe, all at the same time. That took a lot of effort and coordination, but was so worth it.

Timothy dug the claws on his toes into the duvet that had ended up balled up at the foot of the bed as his hips arched a little. His heart was racing and he had a definite feeling that this was heading someplace fast. Someplace really nice but not necessarily a place he wanted her to see. Experience. Go to. Like this. The problem was that when he tried to say something to that effect it came out as a sort of groan instead. And then he seemed to have run out of air. At least to talk with. His eyes rolled back a little, as he made another choked sound.

He seemed to be enjoying this, and that in an of itself was very exciting. Those little noises he was making? The way he moved? The way he felt? All of it made her spine just tingle. Harder, harder, sang the blood in her veins. Kiss him harder. Rub harder. Touch harder. She couldn't think and she didn't really want to, either.

And then - it ended. It sounded like a cat-sneeze but the way his spine arched and the sudden dampness of his shorts showed quite well that he hadn't just sneezed. As did the panting and the groggy look in his eyes - except that he did kind of look like that when he sneezed too.

Did he...?
Oh. Oh, wow.
Wow. She'd never...
Did he, uh, enjoy...? It was hard to tell, from his expression.
More importantly! Were his shorts shredded from the barbs? She risked a glance down while he was still dazed, relieved to see that they were intact.
He'd been so..quiet.
And she'd made him...! Yes, that!
She was very careful not to lean or press against him there, but kissed his mouth carefully.
Wow.

Timothy squeezed his eyes shut, feeling his ears heat up to the pint of melting. This was so - He'd never be able to look her in the eyes again. And he was all sticky. Ew. He cranked one eye open as she kissed him though. Okay, once again she wasn't freaking out. He could do this. Aw man, stuff like this probably never ever happened to the cool guys. Like Remy. "Ehm - I think I have to go to the bathroom..." His voice couldn't possibly have been any lower.

"Okay," she whispered, and moved back from him. His blush was making her blush, but she couldn't seem to stop smiling. This was definitely a big step for them. She wasn't quite sure which base this landed them on, but she was feeling pretty lively.

Timothy snuck into the bathroom, very aware that his face was blazing. Aw man. He stepped out of his shorts and found a washcloth, doing his best not to look at the spots. This was so embarrassing.
And kinda hot too.

He splashed water on his face as well before wrapping a towel around his waist and going back in.

She busied herself by picking up the schoolbook from the floor, and tidied the bed up a little, giving him time. When the bathroom door opened up, she was still sitting on the bed, smiling at him. Her blush was still there, a little. "Hi." It was all she could think of at the moment to say. Because he was wrapped up in a towel. And probably not wearing anything beneath it.
Oooo, boy. Her heart suddenly doubled its speed.

"Ehm - hi?" he said, padding over to the bed and sitting down. "Ehm - sorry?" He wasn't sure if he should apologize, but he had better. Just in case.

That surprised her, and she looked at him with a slight frown, before reaching out to touch his shoulder with her hand. "Sorry? There's no need to be sorry, Timothy. I love you."
He was feeling awfully embarrassed, and she had no idea how to make him feel better. To be...relaxed. Or, if not relaxed, then at least not embarrassed.
Shoot. Anything else she could say or do would likely make him feel even more put-on-the-spot. Although she did have to feel sorry for boys in general, with their plumbing on the outside, like that.

Timothy pulled his feet up and dug his toes into the edge of the mattress. "Yeah. And I love you too so I shouldn't just, you know. Without you I mean. And stuff." They didn't in the books. It was all ladies first and everything. Not that he could really picture what it was like with girls since, like, yeah. But still. They seemed to manage in the books. What with the moaning and heaving chests and stuff.

She grinned a bit. "Well, considering that this won't likely be our only time, I don't think you should worry. You know? Besides, I still had..." she was going to say 'fun', but it made it sound kind of flip. Casual. And that was the one thing she didn't want this to sound like. "I liked watching you. Knowing that I made you feel so good?"

"Yeah?" He smiled at her, looking a little more relaxed now. Then he yawned. Hugely. "Sorry. I'm just -" Another yawn.

She smiled, turned and plumped up his pillow for him. "Why don't you lay back and relax? After..." she leaned in and kissed him, then scooted out of his way.

Timothy got settled, being very careful with the towel. Cause, yeah.

It took him all of two minutes to fall asleep. And as he turned over, wanting to be closer to her, even in his sleep, the towel got pushed down a little.

The barbs were not all that noticeable. But they were there.

Oh!
She shouldn't be looking. Nope, nope. But she couldn't help herself, and so she did.

She was so relieved she wanted to cry.

That wasn't bad. Not at all. She'd never been able to imagine what he'd look like very well, and all the technical explanations and generic drawings and paintings never really transferred to Timothy for her.
But those weren't 'barbs'. Heck, they kind of looked like tiny raised freckles.
She smiled, and felt some worry-muscles in her shoulders start to ease. She'd been carrying that tension around for a good while now, and now it was leaving.
Her eyes found his face again, and she felt an overwhelming wave of adoration for him. Her boyfriend. Her best friend.
He was so cute when he slept.

[Private]

2005-06-15T14:06:05Z

Why do they make stuff that so hard to open?!!!

I’ve got condoms. Three even. And I can get more if I want. So I decided I should try one on. Or, Doctor Hank suggested it. Because of my barbs.

Stupid barbs.

Anyway, that foil is really slippery and hard to open and I didn’t want to bite it open or anything. Because I didn’t want to poke holes in the condom inside. It took forever.

Condoms are sort of funny-looking when they’re just lying there. Also, they’re like really greasy when you touch them and they smell bad. Really bad. Like ew.

I closed my door first and pushed my desk in front of it, just in case, cause I didn’t want anybody to walk in on me.

Claws are really in the way sometimes.

Doctor Hank said you could put more on. So I tried that. It was sort of hard getting the second one on, because it got stuck on the first one a little. And it felt odd. Like, when I poked it. But the barbs didn’t go through. Not at first. So I poked it some more and then it looked like they might so I stopped.

My fingers smell. And I’ve washed them twice now.

I don’t think I like condoms very much.

Also - we went to the Diary Queen for ice cream, me and Mr. Summers. And I left a note for those mutant kids that Jubilee saw. I did it while Mr. Summers was in the bathroom.

He had a headache. I bet it's because he grinds his teeth like that. So I said that and he just looked at me and didn't say anything.

I had chocolate ice-cream. Then we went back home.

And I am not to look at squirrels when I am driving.

I like squirrels.

[Private]

2005-05-28T06:43:04Z

It sucks being a mutant. Or at least being me.
I like the cool stuff I can do now, like being faster and being good at jumping and stuff. And the claws are kind of nifty too. But why does there have to be cat-stuff inside my head?

I don't want to bite Kate. She's my girlfriend. And no matter what she says it's not like she's gonna want to be my girlfriend no more if I start biting her. Not if I do it for real.
Stupid, stupid, stupid instincts.

French is fun. It used to be with with Miss Frost but now it's Remy who's teaching. I like Remy too. He is cool. Why couldn't I have a mutation like that? With cool eyes and being able to make stuff go kaBoom?

Okay, my eyes are actually kinda cool already. But not as cool.

Dance is fun too. But I'm not going to admit that to Kate cause she might tell people and then they'd think I'm a sissy. It's like that every time. Just because I'm a bit short. But there will be claws if somebody calls me sissy.

I hate English but that's mostly because I never know what to write.

Miss Rogue is nice. But she's been all - weird. Like, she didn't smile a lot and now when she does sometimes she looks like she doesn't want to.

AND IF ANYBODY IS READING THIS NOW WILL BE THE TIME TO PUT IT BACK CAUSE I WILL KNOW AND THERE WILL BE CLAWS!!!!!!!

Sometimes at night I sort of - bite my pillow and pretend it's somebody. Like Kate. Or someone.

Anyway, that doesn't make me a freak. I think. Not more than I already am. But I just don't want people to know and how are they supposed to understand that it's because of all the smells. Like, Mr. Summers smells a lot and he didn't used to. And Miss Grey smells like him. And that's just gross cause he's like the Headmaster and stuff. And an Adult. And old. Like - 30. At least.

And all other people seem to be smelling like other people or like - they get that smell and then I have to like really think about other stuff because otherwise it would be really embarrassing and they ought to think about that!!!!! Embarrassing other people like that.

And at dance class Ian smells like that too. Like whenever he speaks with Remy. And that is just -- weird. And creepy.

I like it whern Kate smells like that though. Like, we went down to the Boathouse because she did her Door-Thing and then we like kissed and stuff. And she tied a bandanna round her neck so I didn't have to worry but she shouldn't have to. And it's not the same anyway.

And she said she didn't mind. About the other thing. When I told her. It still looks gross though. Ew.
And she said that maybe it wouldn't be dangerous if we used a condom and I can't breathe when she says stuff like that because man - she says it. And that's like saying that she wants to. Like for real.

I just don't know if I can ask the Doctor. Cause he knows about it - but he is my KP. Maybe I could ask Remy. I bet he's got boxes of condoms. But - sometimes he's all cool and sometimes he gets all teacher-like and tells you you shouldn't be doing stuff. And I don't want to tell him about like why I want them.

Growing up sucks.

I miss you too. How are you? Oh - and I'm, like, fine

2005-03-28T19:25:29Z

Who: Kate and Timothy
When: During last week
Where: On the phone
What: Introducing Bonnie Copperfield and Nancy Jackson

She glances at the clock, deciding that it'd be okay to call five minutes earlier than they had agreed to last time. His phone number is on speed-dial, and she hits the button and then slips into the living room to perch in her favourite chair while listening to the ringing on the other end.

He hears his phone ring and casts a quick look at the clock on the kitchen wall as he runs out of the door. She's early. He darts up the stairs and throws the door open, yelling "Shut up," back at Allison who sounds very displeased at the loud running. He grabs up the phone and flops down on the bed as he hits the button. "Hi?" Only a little bit out of breath.

Her giggle greets him first, having heard his out-of- breathless. "Hello." She can't help it, she adds a tiny little purring-sort of warmth to her greeting, missing him very much, but also suddenly very very excited to talk to him. As though she hadn't spoken with him less than 12 hours ago. "How are you? I miss you."

"I miss you too. How are you? Oh - and I'm, like, fine" He curls up on the bed, holding a hand over the mouth piece as he yells "Shut up, Allison!" Her voice always makes him stomach get all funny. Especially when she is saying stuff like that. about missing him and stuff. And she sounds like - really adult on the phone. Yeah.

Another giggle as she hears him bellow at Allison. "Your sister's making up for all that time you've been away, huh? I'm good. We went to Deer Park, where they have this herd of mule deer and you can feed them. They'll come up and crowd you and eat right out of your hand. You can buy ice-cream-cones full of corn and stuff for them. What'd you do today?" She slides to sprawl sideways in the chair, legs over one arm, head over the other.

"That sounds like fun." His voice is a bit envious. There aren't really any mule deer - or any kind of deer really - in Yonkers. "We went to the mall. Was okay." The tone of his voice changes a little at the end of the sentence. He'd forgotten what it felt like, having to wear - like - hoodies all the time. "I got a new watch. And Allison spent like four hours in a clothes shop." Okay, so maybe he was exaggerating just a touch. It had felt like it though.

She laughs sympathetically. "That sounds horrible. When you come up for the summer, we'll come here again so you can feed the deer and trout. And they have peacocks in the warmer weather that just roam around and squawk."

"Yeah? That'll be fun." There's a very clear image of just how to have fun with peacocks - but you probably aren't supposed to do that. He flops onto his belly and yawns. "Are you gonna be doing more fun stuff?" Things might have changed since yesterday after all. And it'll mean she'll keep talking.

"Well, probably not really big stuff," she explains. "I go back on Thursday, and Mom and Daddy have to work. I'll probably go to the park, maybe, or take some more pictures at the lake. How about you? What's your Mom say about this summer?"

He sneezed. He should probably vacuum or something. "She wanted to talk with your mum I think. But I think she'll let us. And I'm not doing anything in particular. Hang out at home I think. Mum's home." Maybe they'd make cookies or something. And maybe he could talk her into driving him to the mall so he could pick up a gift for Kate.

"Yah?" He can hear her smile in her voice. "My Mom wanted to talk to your mom about it, too. She's fine with it, as long as your Mom is okay, you know?" Her tone changes a bit. "I got you a present....did the postcard make it there yet? The one with the moose with the water lilly on his head?" As though he gets many post cards from Minnesota. This one had "XOXOXOXOXO" written on the back of it, and was signed "Kate" and "PS: I miss you!"

He shakes his head. "No - but Dad sometimes takes the mail with him in the morning so it might have come today." She got him a postcard. His toes begin to knead the mattress and she'll be able to hear the purr. "And Mum is the same. Like - she's okay with it if your parents are okay with it." Summer was looking up.

"Great!" This summer will be the BEST ever. "D'you have any idea how long your mom will let you stay here?" Oh, her voice is excited now, and she can hear his purring and is very glad she’s sitting down. Well, lounging even, because it always makes her feel melty inside. Suddenly her voice drops in volume and pitch as she cups her hand over the receiver. "I dreamed about us kissing last night."

He is about to answer and then she says that and his ears heat up a little. "Yeah? I dreamed about us too." They hadn't been kissing but he had been just about to get his hand under her shirt when Allison woke him up. That had earned her a pillow in the face. And she'd deserved it too. The purring increases a bit in volume.

"Did you?" Her delighted tone takes on a more smooth texture. "I can't wait to see you again. Mom and Daddy just kind of roll their eyes when they see me on the phone. Daddy tells me he forgot what I looked like without a phone growing out of my ear." She sounds amused. "So, is my Mom supposed to call yours, or what?"

"Allison pokes fun of me all the time," he says, not really sounding annoyed at all. "And - ehm - I guess she can. Or mine can call yours? Or - like - I could ask her? When she wants to?" He wasn't quite certain how these things were supposed to work.

She giggles again. "She's your sister. That's her job. And yah, why don't you ask your mom when would be a good time for mine to call you? That sounds right, because I...we did the inviting, and everything?" Sounding eager again.

"I'll do that." He pads to the door and pokes his head out. "MUM." Calling loudly and then making his way down the stairs. There's a radio playing in the background, traditional jazz by the sound of it, and general kitchen sounds. His voice is a little faint as he talks with his mother, holding one hand over the phone. "When do you want Kate's mum to call? So you can talk about the summer holiday?" His voice may be faint but it is clearly eager. He is looking forward to summer all of a sudden.

Hearing his voice, and hearing how he sounds actually excited about it makes her even -more- joyful. He's her boyfriend, and he's excited to see her and wants to come visit and it makes it even more...solid, somehow, that it would extend beyond the walls of the school. She listens closely, ramming the receiver against her ear to hear as much as she can, holding her breath so it doesn't interfere.

Timothy's mother's voice is rather faint as well as she answers and then Timothy comes back on the phone. "Mum says that now is fine. And tomorrow after noon. Cause she was going to run errands or something in the morning. Oh - and that I should tell you that the mobile is really nice. The one you gave me." He sits down on a kitchen chair, feeling very adult because he is on the phone with his girlfriend. In the kitchen. And Allison can say what she likes.

Mobile? Oh! "She saw that?" Her tone is incredibly pleased, because that meant he had it hanging in his room for his parents to see. He had it hanging in his room! "Okay! Lemme see if Mom's in the kitchen, okay?" She bounds out of the chair, covering the receiver with her hand. "Mo-oom...are you there? C'n you talk to Timothy's mom about this summer?" Footsteps tramp in the background as she enters the kitchen. Kate's mom says something affirmative, and Kate talks back into the phone. "Yah, she can talk now. Okay?" Her excitement is clear in her tone.

He says, "Yeah, now'd be good," and there's another rustle as he hands his mother the phone. His palms are a little sweaty cause this is like - big.

There's a muffling sound as she hands the phone to her Mom, whispering "here she is," and then an older lady's tone, complete with a heavy minnesotan accent gets the phone. "Hello?" The tone is slightly amused.

"Mrs. Copperfield?" Timothy's mother works as a teacher and her voice shows that, well modulated and able to carry without being raised. She too sounds a little amused.

"Yes, hello, Mrs Jackson. Please, call me Bonnie. Kate's told both my husband and me about your son in great detail," and at this point a mortified-sounding whispered hiss of "MOM!" is heard. Bonnie continues smoothly. "We're perfectly happy to have Timothy come and visit for a time during summer, if it's all right with you. We have a few rules; places they're not allowed in town, there's a curfew of Midnight, and if they leave the yard to go to the movies, they're to call in right at the end of the show. We have a guest bedroom that he can use."

There's a definite smile in Timothy's mother's voice as she answers. "That sounds splendid Bonnie. And I'm Nancy by the way. If Kate wants to come here that will be fine as well. Our curfew is an hour earlier, and she'll have to share a room with Timothy's sister. Timothy has talked a lot about their summer plans and I'm sure it'd be good for them to spend some time in a different setting than they are used to. Timothy's father will likely be home part of the summer and I will too so there will be adult supervision most of the time." The sound in the background may very well be a deeply embarrassed Timothy banging his head against the kitchen table.

Bonnie chuckles. "I'm pleased to meet you, Nancy. I know Kate's very excited to have Timothy come and see things here in Minnesota. Although her father and I work during the day, we have plenty of relatives nearby to check in on the kids. I also know she's looking forward to seeing life in Yonkers; I think it sounds like a good experience for both of them. Is there any food allergies or medical alerts we need to know about for Timothy? Does he suffer from hay fever?"

"He's gotten a bit sensitive when it comes to smells and he does seem to be sneezing a lot. We'll have our GP have a look at him and make sure to inform you if there is anything you'll need to watch out for. He is slightly lactose intolerant but he may have grown out of that." There's a slightly louder bang in the background and Nancy's voice sounds a bit faint as she turns away from the phone to tell Timothy 'to stop doing that.' "Sorry about that. Anything we should be aware of?"

"We'll be sure to mow the lawn extra short," Bonnie assures her. "And there's a patch of ragweed in the field, but I'll get Ralph to take care of that. And our local grocery store carries lactose-free milk, so we're covered on that end as well. Kate's got no food allergies, nor hay fever, but she has an allergy to beestings. We'll get her doctor to give her an epipen."

"That sounds fine," Nancy says, and then she pauses briefly. It's not an easy topic to breach, especially not with Timothy sitting right next to her. But after the trip to the mall - "Timothy mentioned that Kate had brought a picture of him home?" She can't ask if they know what he looks like. It would make it sound as if there is something the matter with him. But she won't let him get into a situation that might be potentially hurtful.

"Yes, she did," she replies, understanding in her tone. There is sounds of a door opening (one of those creaky screen doors) and then closing, and the acoustics change slightly because she is clearly outside now. A very noisy chirping bird attests to that fact. "He looks like a fine boy, Nancy. Our town is fairly small. Both Ralph and I keep our eyes and ears open. There's no escaping bigots, no matter what, but we'll do our best to keep Timothy as protected as we can from the ignorant few in our community. Here at the Copperfield house? Children are children, no matter their color of skin or differences in genetics. Is there anything about his mutation I need to know about? Believe me, Kate's kept us on our toes enough that a few more things won't be worrisome in the least."

Nancy's voice gets a little faint as she asks Timothy to get fetch his sister. There's a short pause and then she is back, relief in her voice. "I'm glad to hear that. And although our neighbourhood is proving sadly biased there has been no incidents. At least none that has given us cause to worry much. Timothy sleeps a lot and he tends to be a little - scattered. But he's a nice boy and I am sure he'll be on his best behaviour as long as he is staying with you." There's a pause and then she adds, "And I can't tell you how much what you just said means to us."

"In this day and age? We parents of such children need to band together," Bonnie says firmly, warmth creeping into her tone. "I've seen some of the things on TV. Riots and so on, and it's very disturbing. There's been no nonsense like that here, as of yet. And I'm glad to hear there's been no incidents in your neighbourhood. With all the stories Kate's told us about Timothy, I feel like I know him already!" She pauses a moment. "If things get...if the situation changes in your neighbourhood, there are cabins for rent all over the place up here. It might help to have a place to lay low for a while, until things cool down." She hastily adds, "Of course, that's only a last resort sort of thing, I'm sure!"

"We've already spoken with my husband's sister. She lives in San Francisco but has friends in most places it seems." There's a note of tired resignation in Nancy's voice. "But I'll keep what you said in mind. At least it's a relief that they're safe at the school." Another pause and then the sound of voices, bickering. "Timothy! Allison! Language!"

Bonnie chuckles. "Uh-oh. Sounds like a rumble is about to begin. I'm sure Timothy has our number, but...do you have a pen and paper handy? I'll give you our phone number and address, and then let you go. It sounds like a referee is needed." Amusement is in her voice again.

"Thank you. And I must admit I am beginning to look forward to the end of Spring Break." Nancy's voice looses a bit of the tired edge and then she says, "Yes, I've got a pen. And then you'd better get our phone number as well."

"A good idea." She gives Nancy their phone number and address, as well as both of their work numbers, then takes down the Jackson number. "That'll do it, then, except for the hammering out of specific dates for the visit. We can figure that out later, though. There's plenty of time, after all. It's very nice to have finally talked to you, Nancy. We'll talk another time when things aren't so hectic."

"Yes, we will." Nancy's voice has gotten back to its initial warmth and there's a rustle as the phone is handed back to Timothy.

Whoops. She turns back to walk into the house. "One moment, Timothy, while I find Kate....here you go." The phone is passed over, and Kate speaks into the receiver again. "Hello?"

"Hi." The purr is back. "So - I guess we'll be spending the summer holidays together. Part of it at least." This is so cool.

"I guess so!" the sheer pleasure in her tone takes place of a purr. "I can't wait. There's so much I want to show you, and I can't wait to see you."

"Me neither." There's the sound of voices in the background and then he says, "I have to go now. Can I call you tomorrow?" The break will be over soon. And he is almost looking forward to it. Not the school bit of course, but being close to her again.

"Oh, yes." The gladness and spin she puts on the reply is designed to make him blush...and to guarantee he'll think about her after they hang up. "I'm looking forward to it already. And remember, on Thursday you'll have to call my cell, because I'll be back at the mansion then. I have to go too...it's suppertime." Her voice goes into a whisper. "Miss you. I'm gonna kiss you -so- much when I see you again. I never knew a week could be so long."

The purr grows deafening for a second. Mainly because he can't say it back. Not with Mum right there. And certainly not with Allison right there. "Yeah. Yeah, I'll see you soon. Talk tomorrow. Bye." Who would have thought ending phone calls could be so hard?

"Goodbye....." her smile is clearly in her voice as she holds onto the phone for a few seconds longer to see if he hangs up first.

He does. But only because he can't hold the phone and chase Allison at the same time. The last thing Kate hears is a young woman's voice, singing "Timothy and Ka-ate are sitting in a tree..." mockingly.

She laughs, slowly setting the receiver back into the cradle with a distant smile. It takes her mother four times of calling her to supper before it registers. "Huh? Coming!" And it's off to supper with a smile that could light the sky.

A Small Request [locked to wx_windrider]

2005-03-14T16:36:46Z

It wasn't that he'd decided to track Miss Munroe exactly. It was just that - well - it was kinda personal. What he wanted to ask her about. And he'd rather do it when there was nobody else about.

Besides, she was like - really pretty. And it'd be so embarrassing if she caught him staring at her.

Timothy tip-toed after Miss Munroe all the way down to the kitchen. Which was empty. Whih meant that -

He cleared his throat. "Ehm - Miss Munroe?"

when is she not thinking about kissing him?

2005-03-04T20:35:55Z

Who: Timothy and Kate
When: Friday morning
Where: Kate's room
What: Catching up

Fresh from dressing, her hair is still damp from the shower. There's a song playing on her stereo, a CD that she always reaches for when she;s feeling nostalgic. She rubs her hair with a towel, then tosses it over the back of her chair while rubbing apple-scented lotion on her face. A whole day off! What should she do first? When will Timothy be awake?

Timothy has been trying to sleep in. But he couldn't. Now, it's no longer very early and he is hurrying down to Kate's room, almost shivering from the excitement of his Danger Room experience. he knocks and waits for her to open the door. Impatiently and bouncing on the balls of his feet.

Whoa! Someone knocking at the crack of dawn? She hopes it's good news, and she goes to open the door, hair still in wet straggles, but at least she;s clean and smells good. "Timothy! Hi!" She hugs him tight. "Come in, what's up?"

She can feel him, all nervoushappy tension and he has to almost bite his tongue to keep quiet till he has plumped down on her bed. It smells like her and sleep but even that isn't enough to distract him. "I had a Danger Room session with Doctor Hank yesterday," he blurts out, looking about to burst.

"Whoa! No kidding?" His excitement is infectious, and she sits down beside him, turning to face him with her leg folding in front of her. "How'd it go? What happened?"

"It was so cool. It was, like, to train my abilities and stuff. Like with sniffing and sneaking and everything. Well, first he made the Danger Room into a jungle. A proper one. With huge trees and animals and - and - and snakes." Not that he had seen any snakes but why split hairs?

Her eyes grow wide. "Whoa. A jungle? Did it smell like a jungle? Did you climb the trees? How'd you do? You trained with sneaking and sniffing? How?" She's not seen him so lively about something for a long time, and it makes her smile brightly.

She is impressed. This is - i>so</i> cool. "It was like - so real. And at first, I stayed on the ground and tracked a deer." His gestures may imply that it was quite a large deer, which wasn't the case but still - "And then, after that, I climbed up one of the trees and almost caught a bird, Like - a parrot. But I let it fly." It had all been by design. Of course.

She's clearly surprised, and her expression shows it. "Wow. Deer can be pretty dangerous---they kick and trample and stuff. And they're so....hyperaware. And you tracked it? And a bird, too? In a tree?" She blinks slowly. "Wow. Your Sneaking must have gone off the chart to have been able to do that." She looks at him with newfound admiration.

He preens at her admiration and then he carries on. "And then - after the bird thing? He made it turn into a savannah. Like with dry grass and sand and stuff." Forgetting to mention the bit where he fell out of the tree. Since it wasn't important anyway.

"No kidding? Like Africa? They had a special on Animal Planet with Cheetahs and things last week. Was it like that?" She's growing even more excited as he tells his tale, and she shifts position a bit, drawing her legs up to wrap her arms around them. "Which was better? The jungle, or the savannah?"

"The savannah," he says with conviction. "Cause - like - the jungle was cool but the savannah was much harder. And then there was a pack of jackals -" Pausing for effect and looking at her. "That attacked me." Only because he'd gottena bit close and 'attack' was perhaps stretching it a bit - but it was close enough.

"Jackals!" She looks startled; she'd never considered jackals before. "Ohmigod. They attacked you? Are you okay?" She looks at him, seeking signs of damage. "They're pack animals, aren't they?" Jackals are now Dangerous Things in her mind.

He nods and holds his arm out for inspection. "One of them bit me - look. Cause like - they surrounded me and then I jumped onto one of them and held it down and the Doctor slapped the other one and it just flew - " He has to stop to take a breath. "And it was so cool!"

She holds his arm carefully, looking with concern at the slash. The realization of the fact that he actually got hurt in the Danger Room strikes her hard. "Oh, Timothy. You got hurt..." and she bends her head to kiss above and below the wound, lightly, to make it beter.

He sits very, very still. This is like - wow. He'll have to make sure to show her all of his cuts from now on. He starts to knead the air with his toes, purring. "It's not that bad, actually."

She holds his injured arm gently, patting his shoulder. "It looks like it hurt. Jackals are pretty dangerous, huh? But you won." There's admiration in her tone again.

He nods - and then he adds, truthfully, "But Doctor Hank helped. There were three of them and I only managed one of them." More or less. "Oh - and I get to go once a week. And we'll work with my instincts -" And then he blushes, remembering why he has to do that in the first place.

She nods at his explanation of Doctor Hank helping, but her look of admiration doesn't wane. "Right off the bat, on the first session, you were able to handle a vicious thing like that. Even when you were injured." She shakes her head, smiling and giving a little sigh, and reaches her arm around him to give him a gentle hug. "You're just awesome. I'm constantly surprised by you." His explanation of training for instincts causes her to blush a little, too, but she smiles. "I'm glad that you're having a chance to do that."

"Yeah." He doesn't really know what to say and she is so close now - so he leans in to kiss her instead. Just a soft kiss on her cheek, doing his best not to smell her. It's hard. He sighs against her skin and then he sits back, suddenly chipper again. "We're having today off - that's so cool. What'd you wanna do?" He hopes she'll want to watch a movie or something. Something nice. Where you get to snuggle.

"I know! Isn't it? Miss Frost is having the danger Room set up like a beach, I think, with skateboarding places and a volleyball net and stuff. I don't have any definite plans, just so long as I'm with you. Did you have any plans? Any ideas?" She beams at him, looking proudly. he took on a jackal and won. Wow.

"Yeah?" That sounds like it might be fun. "I figured, maybe we could watch a movie or something? And hang out?" He smiles at her, hopefully, while his eyes say 'and kiss'.

Her eyes twinkle with the same thoughts---when is she not thinking about kissing him? "That's a great idea. I haven't watched a movie in a while, and I saw a couple of spooky ones on the shelf. And some adventure flicks." She scoots a bit closer, being very careful about his injured arm.

He beams at her - and then his stomach rumbles. Loudly. "We can get some breakfast and then eat in the TV Room. Maybe?" That could be great. Food, movie. Kate. His favorite things.

"Sounds good," she puts her hand on her stomach. "I'm starved." Her grin is huge, because his is huge. He's a hero. She always knew it, deep down. And he’s even more confident now from the session. This promises to be wonderful, absolutely wonderful. "Let's go."

And then - he bites her

2005-02-14T21:30:57Z

Who: Timothy and Kate
When: Valentine's Day
Where: His room
What: A gift - and a cat_astrophe

Valentine's day dinner was a special one, made even more so by her teasing promises to Timothy that she has his gift in her room. Not until the last bit of chocolate dessert is finished does she at last tell him that she will bring it to his room. Knocking on his door, she holds it behind her back and wears a very wide smile.

He's tried to clean up a bit, mostly by showing stuff into his closet and under his bed. As he hears the knock he leaps to the door and opens it quickly. "Hi." Grinning widely. He likes presents and surprises and stuff.

She leans against the doorway, crossing her ankles and raising her eyes to meet his, smiling. Blushing a bit, which makes her pale pink shirt seem even softer. "Hi." Bringing out the red-wrapped box and card, she hands it to him with a flourish. "Will you be my Valentine?" There is a purple foil-wrapped chocolate heart stuck to the envelope. She still wears the necklace he gave her.

He takes the box, nodding and the looks back at her, grinning. "I'm your boyfriend. Aren't I like - supposed to be your Valentine too? He steps aside so she can get in. He's even made his bed. Sort of. "Wanna sit down?" This is so cool.

She chuckles, and comes in, closing the door and nodding. "Thanks." Moving to sit on the bed, she watches him with bright eyes. "You're my boyfriend, absolutely. But it's still nice to be asked. And I got to see you smile like that."

He fiddles a bit with the box, not quite knowing what to say. Instead of saying anything he just plops down on the bed next to her and opens the box slowly, after reading the card and putting the sweet aside.

The card is a Valentine Card, blank inside. She wrote: "There are times when it is easier to write words instead of say them, and Valentine's day cards definitely call for that. If I write how much you mean to me, and how I wish I could give you the world, I hope that doesn't scare you off. I've never known anyone like you. And I've never felt like this with anyone before. I hope you enjoy this gift, and I hope you have a wonderful Valentine's Day. XOXOXOX. Kate." Inside the box, is a silver linked bracelet that fastens with a toggle. It's masculine0looking, and heavy enough to remind him he has it on. Simple, yet elegant looking.

His ears had gotten a little red as he read the card and they grow even redder as he opens the box and looks at the bracelet. "Wow." He takes it out of the box and holds it up, looking at it. Then back at Kate. "Wow." Not the most eloquent of responses perhaps.

She looks a little anxious, hoping he likes it. "I haven’t seen you wear anything like it," she quickly says. "But I saw it and thought of you and I kept thinking about it and seeing you wear it..." It took a lot of saving for that, and her heart pounds. Does he like it? Or is he one of those that doesn’t care to wear any jewellery? Boys are maddeningly hard to shop for!

Kate's gotten it for him. He would have liked it no matter what. And it's nice. A little heavy. And shiny. He looks at her. "Thank you." He really doesn't know what to say. Girls are much better at that sort of thing. Because they talk a lot and stuff. He gives up on trying to think of something clever and instead leans forward, pressing a kiss to her lips.

She smiles even as she kisses him back, brushing his cheek with her fingertips. When the kiss is done, she nods, feeling greatly relieved. "You're very, very welcome."

He holds his arm out and hands her the bracelet. "Wanna put it on?" She smells really nice. His nostrils are flaring a little, to catch her scent properly.

"Sure." She continues to smile, taking up the silver chain and wrapping it around the offered wrist, sliding the toggle through and then straightening it. It looks nice, and has a bit of room for him to grow into it. "It looks good on you."

"You think?" He looks at it. Happily. This might be something someone like Remy would wear. Yeah, cool. He fidgets a bit and then leans forward again. Kissing is easier than talking. And now he knows that the middle of her back is like really soft and for some reason he keeps thinking about that.

"Oh, yes," she nods, smiling. And she kisses him back quite happily, recalling how he looked without a shirt, and how he felt without a shirt, too, during the dance.

He keeps kissing her and even parts his lips a little. She tastes really good. A bit of chocolate. A lot of Kate. He's begun purring and the sound is strong enough to make his lips vibrate a little.

She melts a little into the kiss, sighing happily as she parts her lips and flicks her tongue across his. His mouth is sweet, so very sweet. Her fingertips graze along his cheek and jawline, and his purring seems only to encourage her to continue.

He pushes at her a little. It's be so much easier if she was lying down. The fingers on his right hand are tangling in her hair and he's closed his eyes to feel her better. Smell her better. This is so good.

Oh my. This is turning into one of those dream-kisses that makes Economics bearable. One of those dreamy, floating instances where thought is suspended in turn for simple emotions and actions. Her responding kiss is more passionate, lips parting more to run her tongue along the inside of his lower lip, while her hand continues its way into his hair. At his light push, she eases back a bit, not quite sure if he wants her to scoot over, or move back.

He moves his hand from the back of her head to push lightly at her shoulder, still kissing her, moving her lips against hers. His tongue is the tiniest bit raspy and very eager. She tastes so good. And if he could just - he moves one of his legs till it's lying across hers. Not thinking. Thinking would ruin this, of that he is certain.

"Mmmm...." she sighs into the kiss, sliding her tongue along his, savoring the taste of him that is indescribable, and yet so very very desirable. His more insistent push is deciphered and she leans back slowly, holding him close with an arm slipping around his waist. His leg sliding along and over hers is definitely noticed, and the contact feels so very right that she moves hers a little more so it's comfortable for him. The kiss seems to step up another notch now.

Wow. This is - wow.

He purrs even louder as he moves a little, sliding almost on top of her. She is so soft and there's something about her scent that is just - that makes his mouth water. Not like at the dance though. She smelled really nice at the dance. He almost-nips at her lips and pushes his tongue alll the way into her mouth. Still not all that smooth after all.

This is....wonderful. She holds him close, pulling slightly at him, wanting to feel more of him, more of his weight. She suddenly feels very warm, but instead of melty and lazy, it's a very very active warmth that seems to be much like a fire inside. His tongue is slightly rough, but she explores it eagerly, making soft little noises that get lost in his mouth.

Timothy is acting more and more like a cat, rubbing his head against her as he breaks the kiss to kiss her collarbone. And then rubbing a little against her just in general. Cause this is like - wow. So good. He nips at her neck with his lips a little.
And then - he bites her. Hard.

She is starting to breathe a little harder now, both hands cupping to hold the back of his head, and were she not already laying down, she would have very possibly swooned at the slight motion of his rubbing. And when he kisses her neck, and her collarbone---she loves that---and then she yelps with surprise and hurt when he bites, eyes snapping wide open as she flinches fully. "Ouch!"

He starts, almost jumping off the bed. He can taste - he thinks he can taste blood. He stares at her and then he bolts, running out the door and down the hall. People don't bite people. Real people don't bite people. She'll hate him now.

[Private]

2005-02-07T10:40:14Z

Everybody else went to the Mall Saturday. I didn't go. I overslept. And I sort of didn't want to go. Or - I did. But like, you can tell that I am a mutant. Just by looking. And I don't like it when people yell at me. Besides, like, you can't tell that Kate is a mutant. But people would still yell at me and then they'd yell at her too.

I don't want anybody to be mean to her. Ever.

But now she probably had lots of fun with all the others. Without me.

Being a mutant sucks.

[Private]

2005-01-30T09:21:37Z

Kate's my girlfriend.

She's really pretty and funny and she smells nice and she asked and I said yes and now she'd my girlfriend.

Rogue helped me make a winter picnic spot with little lights in the tree and Miss Jane made cake we could have and we kissed and everything.

Or not like _everything_ but still.

And I heard something and went to investigate it with Remy. Who's like a real X-Man and his eyes glow and he can make things explode. And it's just so cool!!!
I bet nobody makes fun of his eyes, cause he's like tall and dangerous. Except that he's kinda nice. Anyway, it was just squirrels but he said that me checking it out was good. And that I had to go get an adult which I would have anyway. Sort of.

I've remembered all my Bio homework too. And English. And Economy. Except it was a bit late and I'd forgotten one of the pages so I had to give it to Bobby later.

Mum called. Dad's working out of state so he is only home on the weekends. She said there weren't any problems.

I think maybe she wasn't telling me the truth.

It's not like I'm a child.

I wonder if Kate would want to play X-Box? We could have popcorn. I'll have to ask her.

Was I ever that bad at his age?

2005-01-27T21:54:46Z

Who: Timothy and Remy
When: After Emma's talk
Where: Outside
What: Suspicious scents. And budding hero-worship

Timothy was - not skipping class. Exactly. He'd just smelled something interesting and had had to check it out quickly after breakfast. And then he'd sort of forgotten about class. Now he is sitting on the porch, looking down toward the lake. It is a nice day. But cold. He pulls his scarf up over his nose, which sort of dulls the scents in the clear, cold air.

The porch was also the destination of a certain nicotine-starved Cajun. Remy had stayed upstairs during breakfast, not wanting to disturb Emma or her talk with the kids. He was trying to break the habit of actually smoking in his room, so once the time had passed for classes to start, he went ahead and walked downstairs. He checks the porch first, not wanting to run into Rogue again. His eyebrows lift when he sees someone out there who was definitely not Rogue, though. "Bonjour," he says, closing the door behind him. "Ain't you late for class?"

Timothy starts and turns to look at Remy. "Ehm - sort of." He didn't make any attempts to get up and go inside though. He is looking very thoughtful and a little distracted. He'd been paying attention to what Emma had said for once. And when you had, like, the perfect nose for sniffing, obviously you had an obligation to check things out. Besides, Economy was sort of dull.

As much as he considered Bobby a friend, Remy would agree about the class being boring. "What's up?" The kid was distracted, that much was obvious. He walks over, shading his eyes to see the landscape better.

"I thought I smelled something," Timothy mumbles, looking up at Remy. He fidgets a little. He'd started thinking after the talk too. That hadn't done anything to improve matters-

"Smelled somet'in'?" Remy leans over so that he was closer to Timothy's height. Even in the shadow of the porch, though, there was no mistaking the strangeness of those red-on-black eyes. "Where from? An' how?" He hadn't gotten the skinny on all of the kids' mutations, but the slitted eyes gave him something of a clue about this one.

Timothy's eyes widen as he sees Remy's eyes. That looks so cool. He pulls his scarf down a little and rubs at his nose, claws glinting in the sun. "From over there. But I don't think it was anything anyway. I just wanted to make sure." He wrinkles his nose a little, trying not to stare. So cool.

"Still, can't hurt to check it out." He gives the kid a grin and straightens. "You stay behin' me, though. Anyt'in' happens, you run back for de house, al'ight?"

Wow. Wow. This is so.cool. And scary. Timothy gets to his feet elegantly and gets ready to tip-toe after Remy. "I can do that. I'm fast." Nodding a little eagerly.

If he thought it was actually anything dangerous, Remy would send the boy straight back into the house for back up. Still, he didn't want to take any chances and dropped a few cards into his hand. He didn't charge them as they walked across the yard. "Which way?"

Timothy pointed to the left of the lake, looking at the cards in Remy's hand. Curiously. He didn't ask any questions though. In fact, he was being amazingly quiet.

Following the pointing finger, Remy's steps are nearly silent even in the snow. His trench coat sweeps behind him a bit as he looks around. "If dere's anybody out dere, best get yerselves out here where I can see you." He keeps his eyes on the woods, frowning slightly.

Timothy is standing behind him, trembling slightly. Partly from exitement, partly from fear. He is drawing his lips back from his fangs. They'd better watch out - whoever was there. Maybe.

Remy purses his lips, separating a single card from the ones he'd dropped and charging it just a little. Enough that when he tossed it, it was more noise than light when it hit. *PAFFT* There was a skittering in the underbrush and a couple of squirrels scramble up the nearest tree. He chuckles, shaking his head. "Well, dere you go."

At the impact Timothy jumps in the air, hissing. Squirrels. Oh. He looks apologetically up at Remy. "I didn't know they smelled like that." And then. after a pause, "That was so cool!"

"Don' worry. It could have been somet'in' serious. Better dat you brought it to de attention of an adult." Remy turns, eyebrows raising again. "What, dat? Dat was just ability. My power." He doesn't always think the way one of the kids would. He doesn't always think of his ability as ' cool'.

Timothy grows a little at the praise and then goes, "It looked awesome. All like 'Pow!'" He jumps in the air, striking out with one hand, claws extended halfway. When he lands he grins up at Remy, his nose quivering a little. "It smells like - a thunderstorm or something."

He was going to be in so much trouble with Bobby later. Remy shook his head and grinned. "Dat was not'in'." He took one of the two cards left in hand and charged it up. Magenta power rolled off of it and the card squealed as the power was awakened. He waited for a moment, then threw the card at one of the snowbanks. It hit and geyser of snow flew into the air.

"Wow!" When Timothy looks back at him his eyes are filled with amazed wonder. And what might very well be budding hero worship. "That was - wow. It could have been so cool if you'd done that at the Snowbrawl." All thoughts of the protesters and such banished for a moment.

"Non, not so useful at de Snowbrawl. No powers, 'member?" Remy grins widely, putting the third and final card away somewhere. He's doing his best to ignore the hero worship. "'Sides, it wouldn' have stopped you from tacklin' me, oui? So, not so useful." He shivers and tilts his head. "Back up to de house? You's de one 'xplaining to de professor why you ain't in class."

Timothy grins as Remy mentions the fact that he tackled him. And then he ruins it all by talking about classes and stuff. "Yeah. I guess." He walks slowly toward the house, looking far from happy about it. Economy is dull. Dull dull dull - and he is not sitting next to Kate. Dull.

Remy watches the boy and looks to the sky. Oh well, he might as well take pity on him. Not like he's going to get much out of class now. "Name's Remy, by de way." He sticks his hand out. He smells faintly of cigarettes and ink.

"I'm Timothy." Timothy extends his hand, solemnly, and shakes Remy's, sliding his claws back as he does so. His nose quivers a little, picking up the scents from Remy's skin and clothes. "Are you supposed to teach here?" He might. Miss Frost did. And she didn't look like a teacher. At all.

"I am. French." And Remy still can't believe that Scott really wants him teaching. "Not sure when de new classes are startin', so I may have some time."

Timothy bounces a little, trying to keep in step with Remy. "Cool. I like Miss Frosts' class. And Bio. Sort of. Doctor Hank is nice. Actually." Still sort of big. But nice.

"Oui. Doctor McCoy is a very nice guy." Except when he's putting Eyeore tails on the Cajun's trench coat. "Science ne'er did agree wit' me. Just as glad to leave it to him."

Timothy grins a little and rubs his nose. It's itching. "Some of it's a bit hard. But I study with Kate." His ears heat up a little, just from saying her name. And he begins to purr.

"Do you now?" Remy raises an eyebrow, grinning slyly. "Katie's a good kid. Smart too. Could do worse dan to study wit' her." And no, he's not going to ask how much actual studying gets done. He's not crude, after all. Still, there's something in the way that his eyes glow for just a moment...and it's gone. "So, what class you supposed to be in right now?"

Timothy nods eagerly. "She is. She's like - really clever." Then Remy asks about his class and he can't help a frown. "Economy. Ew." He gnaws at one claw and then adds, "Kate's my girlfriend." He's never had one of those before. But somehow it seems important to mention. In fact, the little voice is quite insistent about it.

"Economics ain't so bad. Bobby knows his stuff, after all." It doesn't even dawn on him to call his fellow X-Man 'Professor Drake'. "Just a lot of numbers an' such. Never did much in school myself 'xcept look at de girls in class." And wouldn't Emma just love to hear him telling a student that. He does pause, though, at the title of 'girlfriend' being bestowed on Kate. "You two just make sure you still studyin', hei...right? Still a lot of time left for de boyfriend and girlfriend t'ing."

Timothy grins at Remy's description of his own school days. And then he almost bristles a little at the suggestion that he and Kate are not serious about studying. "We so do. Like - most of the time." His ears are steadily getting more and more red. And his purr is getting rather loud.

Uh-huh. That's what he thought. Remy shakes his head, still grinning. "Well, just keep in mind why you're here and you'll do just fine." He jumped onto the proch, leaning against the railing. He wasn't going to smoke with Timothy out here. If he had to be a role model, he'd at least try to be good for a while.

Timothy follows and leans against the railing, doing his best to look cool. His bright green scarf rather spoils the effect but Mum would get so mad if he went outside without a scarf in winter. He rubs his nose and looks at Remy, still purring. "Do you think Bobby'll be mad?"

"He might. I see what I can do, though." He looks down at Timothy thoughtfully for a moment. "Timothy...what were you gonna do when you smelled dat out dere? Were you just gonna watch or were you gonna get an adult?"

Timothy rubs his nose again. "Ehm - I don't know. I think I was just gonna watch. At first." he's got a feeling that's not the correct answer.

Oh hell. He's not going to have to do this again, is he? Remy moves around, then shifts his stance so that he's not towering over the boy. "Timothy...what you did out here was good. If dat had been a t'reat, den de adults needed to know about it. De watchin' wasn' such a bad idea. I know you don' want to get de professors for each an' every odd scent. But I t'ink we'd all rat'er chase down de false trails each day dan see one of you kids get hurt. Al'ight?"

Timothy colours a little and looks down, purring again, this time to calm himself down a little. "Ehm, yeah. And I was gonna be careful." He looks up at Remy. "Cause like, I'm good at, like, Sneaking and stuff, but not, like, that good yet. I'm training though. With Rogue. So I wouldn't be able to sneak up on anything. Yet."

Not even a flicker at the mention of Rogue's name. He's getting better. "Dat's good. De trainin', I mean. Learnin' to sneak is also a good idea. Never know when it might come in handy." Remy straightens and smiles. "Come on. Back in de house. 'Less I miss my guess, you got anot'er class here soon. Best go get your t'ings together."

"Yeah, yeah." Timothy walks toward the door, dragging his feet. But he is going. After all, Remy had said he was doing the right thing. And - like - stuff. He disappears into the house, sighing loudly. School - ew.

Remy has to stop himself halfway through 'Was I ever that bad at his age?' because, really, he knows he was. He sits on the railing and takes out a cigarette, scanning the yard. Then again, it does pay to be vigilant.

I think I need to apologize to you, cher

2005-01-21T21:38:17Z

Who: Timothy and Rogue
Where: Rogue's room
When: Sometime before the Big Day
What: Talking and making friends

She really should be down in the Danger Room, practicing before the real thing tomorrow. Really. But instead, she's sitting on her windowsill smoking again. Going over the plans in her head. Trying not to think about Remy poking holes in her suggestions. Trying to remember that he wasn't just her former beau, but he was a current team member. Her team member.

Timothy was walking down the hall when he smelled smoke. He stopped and looked at the room. He didn't know anybody lived there. The former student Kate spoke with a lot lived a little further down the hall but this room was supposed to be empty. He scrtatched at the door, curiously. It didn't smell empty. It smelled - a little familiar. He just couldn't place it.

It was just enough noise to break her out of her train of thought. "Come on in!" she called out, turning back to the window and her cigarette.

Oh no. It was that Rogue person. Rats!
He swallowed and pushed the door open, mumbling, "I just smelled something, I'll go now," and getting ready to close it again right away. Before she started telling him off.

"Oh hey now, don't go runnin' away," she said to the boy, knocking her carton of the windowsill as she turned to him. "Shit. Be right back cher!" She slid out of the window and flew down to retrieve the pack.

Huh. Timothy stepped into the room as she disappeared out of the window. She flew. Cool. He was still feeling a bit edgy but she'd sounded friendly enough. He didn't close the door though. Who knew if he might need a quick escape route?

Rogue's head reappeared at the window and she crawled back through, tossing the cigarette pack on the desk. Well whaddya know, the little cat-boy hadn't bolted. "I should quit," she said. It wasn't likely to happen this weekend. She gave him a charming smile. "I think I need to apologize to you, cher," she said casually, settling back down into her spot.

"Eh-" That was unexpected. He stepped a little closer, but still looked ready to run. Maybe it was some sort of trick.

She was pretty though. Like, very. In a grown-up sort of way. With breasts. He realised he was straing and quickly looked back at her face. Woops.

"Go on, sugar" she said waving to the bed and the chair. "Grab a seat." Oh yes, he was definitely a teenager. No one had stared at her like that since ... Best not to think on that right now. "Anyway, you caught me that first night before I'd had a chance to adjust my attitude, Timothy, so I apologize for that and hope you won't hold it against me." She's laying on the accent a little thicker. The boy still looks as jittery as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs.

Timothy padded soundlessly to the chair and sat down gingerly. Rubbing his nose a little. She smelled nice. "That's okay." Willing to forgive her - cause she'd seemed a bit frightening when she was annoyed. "I shouldn't have snooped. I just didn't - know who you were." And even though he wasn't that interested in currrent affairs he did know about MAMA and all that. Like the people who'd sent those letters to Mum and Dad, the ones he hadn't read. He squirmed a little in his seat.

"And I shouldn't have expected you to know how I was just be rattlin' off a string of name. Why don't we start over again?" She held out her hand to him. "Hi. I'm Rogue."

Timothy cleared his throat and took her hand, doing his best to give it a firm shake. "Hi. I'm Timothy." His claws glistened a little in the light. He looked at the gloves, curiously.

Rogue smiled. "It's a pleasure to meet ya, Timothy." She saw him look at the gloves. "You saw me out at the fort battle, right? All covered head to toe? I've got a dangerous mutation, cher, and I can't touch people with my bare skin. So inside, I have to wear gloves like these." She held up her hand showed off the gloves. Satin, of course, opera length. Black. She might not have many clothes with her, but she'd brought quite a few pairs of gloves.

His eyes widened. "Not ever?" It was hard to imagine. Not being able to like, hug and stuff. He looked at her, his nose quivering a little.

"Well as long as my skin doesn't touch the other person's it's OK. I can hug another person, I just have to be careful," she explained. "But I figured if we're gonna be friends, then you ought to know that about me."

Friends. Cool. He nodded and smiled at her, showing off small fangs. "They're pretty though, The gloves. My Mum has some too. All shiny." Why did he always have to sound like such a moron?

"I have a whole collection, sugar, some for dress, some for play and some for work. Years ago, women used to wear them all the time when they went out. It was considered proper and lady-like. That might be why your momma has some." She reached for the pack of cigarettes on the desk, but stopped. Best not to have Timothy smelling like smoke when he left.

He dragged his feet up, kneading the edge of the seat with his toes. "But you fly too?" Curious. Flying was cool. Really cool. He looked around. Her room was sort of dull. Maybe she didn't have any stuff.

Rogue nodded. "Mmhmm." She studied him. He looked like a smart kid. "The reason I can't touch bare skin is because I absorb people's powers and their lifeforce," she said patiently. "And one time, I permanently absorbed some, well, some alien DNA and that gave me the ability to fly. And some extra strength and speed," she finished. As if that sort of thing happened every day.

His eyes widened even more. Aliens? So cool. "Wow. Can you like, fly into outer space and stuff, then?" He's purring but it doesn't affect his voice when he talks. It just lies behind it, making his voice sound a little bit deeper. His toes are still kneading and now the claws are sliding out through the toes of his socks.

She chuckled. He really was just a kitten, no matter how much he denied it. "No, I don't think I can fly that far," she said with a shake of her head. "Now, fair's fair," she continued. "I told you about my mutation, you tell me about yours."

I'm - I've got a feline mutation." He's practiced saying that. "Like, I'm fast. And - ehm - agile? And I can do like this -" He twists his spine, just like a cat. Then he looks back at her and holds his hand out. "And I can do this." He slides his claws out, soundlessly.

"You and I will have to race sometime," she said. "See who's faster." She studied his claws, nodding. "Are you workin' with Hank -- Dr. McCoy, then?" she asked.

He nodded a little. "I'm not sure. He said I should experiment though. Like with smelling and stuff." Looking up at her with big eyes. "You're probably faster than me though." She could fly and everything. "Oh, and I'm good at climbing. There's a tree by the lake that's really good for that." Rubbing his nose again.

"Well, I might be faster, sugar, but it would still be fun to race," she said, chuckling a little. She hadn't flat out run just for the hell of it in a long time. Fly, yes. "I can't say as I'm one for tree-climbin' either, though I have no doubt you're quite good at it. I'll admit I sort of cheat and just ... " she pushed off her seat to float a little, then set back down. "I'm lazy that way."

He stared at her. "Wow, that's cool. I can't do that. But I land on my feet." Sounding a little bit proud of himself. "Did you go to school here too?" A little curious because some of the others sound like they have been students here as well. Or something. Like Bobby, who's not really an adult even though he is a teacher and who has been here forever.

"Now see, that's a good thing. Even I can't do that all the time. If someone hits me a good one in battle, I'm liable to be knocked any which way." She thought about her long and sometimes sordid past with the X-men. "No, I wasn't a student here. In fact, I didn't join the team until a little later. I didn't make the best decisions when I was a kid, Timothy." Which, now that she thought about it, might just be teaching suddenly appealed to her. Let them learn from her mistakes if they would.

Oh. He looks a little concerned. "Like running away and stuff?" The height of adolescent irresponsibility in his book. "My sister did that once. Allison. But only for 2 days." Equal amounts of annoyance and admiration in his voice.

"Yes I ran away from my poppa when I just a young thing," she nodded. That was the least of the things she'd done. "He and I didn't get along real well." She looked at him. "Allison older than you, cher? Why did she run away?"

He nodded a little. "She's 17. And she ran away because she wanted to be in a punk band or something." His toes kneaded the air and his purr increased. He couldn't really imagine not getting along with your parents. Whom would you turn to then?

"Well the important thing is that she came back right? She was most likely testin' her limits. Wantin' to see what she could get away with." A feeling Rogue knew intimately. She tried not to chuckle as the kneading and purring increased; the little cat-boy hadn't seemed to pleased about the whole cat aspect when they first met. Still, he had talked to her about his mutation. "You get the same way? Want to see what you can do with your feline abilities?" she asked.

He rubbed his nose. "Sort of. Doctor Hank said that I should go sniffing in the evenings because the scents are easier to catch then and I once jumped from the second floor back home and landed on my feet." Sounding very cheerful. "And I practice my Sneaking too." Not mentioning Kate so it's okay.

"I have an idea on how to practice two of those at the same time, sugar, if you're interested." Not encouraging him to jump from heights, of course, just in case something were to go wrong.

He perked up. "Yeah?" All ears and big, green eyes. Rogue is actually quite nice. And he understands about being grumpy when tired.

"Well, I need to go shoppin' to get myself some more clothes. Why don't I pick up some of those scented candles while I'm at it. I'll light a different one each night -- you go on and try to sneak up to my door and see if you can figure out what the smell is. You just call it right on out. You get a point if you get the smell right, and a point if you sneak up without me hearin' ya. But! If I hear you before you guess, then I get to take a point away. If you get to a certain number of points -- say after two weeks -- then you'll get a prize or somethin'. How's that sound?" Not mentioning of course, that the candles would help mask the scent of her cigarettes.

Cool. He lit up and bounced a little in his seat. "Yeah. That'd be fun. And I have to practice lots. I want to be able to sneak up on Logan." It's always good to have high aspirations.

"Logan, huh? Well we'd best get to work as soon as we can! He's a hard one to sneak up on all right." She grinned and offered her hand to Timothy to shake on the arrangement.

Timothy shook her hand, his claws drawn all the way back, looking very serious. And then ruined it by grinning widely. "Yeah. It'll be cool."

"We'll start on Monday, cher, so I can get the supplies and you can practice all weekend," she told him, grinning back. Well, she seemed to have won him over. As he would say, "cool".

Looking for The Headmaster

2005-01-19T19:34:05Z

He's prepared his speech. And he's combed his hair. Everything is ready for Operation Cinema. Now he just has to find the Headmaster.

His palms are a little clammy as he walks down the hall to Mr. Summers' office.

[Private]

2005-01-19T16:59:31Z

I haven’t used this much.

Anyway. Kate likes me. We’ve kissed. Properly. With tongues. So whoever that guy was at the snowball fight thing - he’d better think again. MY Kate.
Ha.

I asked her is she wanted to go see a movie and she said yes and now I have to ask Summers but I think it’ll be okay cause he was in the snow ball fight and everything even though ~~his~~ he’s the Headmaster. And she likes me so I have to ask.

Somebody named Rogue moved in. She’s an X-Man too or something and she was all – like Allison. How was I supposed to know that she used to live here? And she kept saying that I was a cat. And I am not!!!

The Doctor says so too. He says it’s all my instincts and stuff but that you can control them and that way you’re still a person. And not a cat.

I hope he tells her that.

Kate smells like vanilla.

And then something happened and it was really embarrassing but she hasn’t said anything so I don’t think she noticed. I hope she didn’t. And then this morning, in the shower, I sort of looked. And it looked – weird. With – things on it. Maybe I’m ill. Maybe it’s like a disease that cats get or something? And that wouldn’t be fair. When I am not one.

Maybe it’ll go away.

I dreamed about Kate this morning. But it was one of those stupid dreams. Like, where the voice is in it. And – I bit her. And I think she liked it. But then I woke up. I just don’t think that girls like being bitten. Like, once I bit Allison and then I got grounded cause she told on me. Stupid dream.

I wonder if she wants to kiss again.

Gifts and going home

2004-12-25T22:09:22Z

It had been odd, having to go home for the break. Nice but odd. Mum and Dad and Allison had all come to pick him up and both Mum and Dad had looked a little teary-eyed.

Before he left he'd shown them his room. Mum had admired the mobile in the window but he hadn't told her who he'd gotten it from. It was sort of private. He'd almost forgotten about Kate's gift but had luckily remembered in time. It had been placed under the tree, carefully wrapped. You could tell where his claws had gotten caught in the ribbon.

The box inside contained a note labeled READ THIS FIRST and a small wooden box.

Hi Kate

This is for you. I got it from Dad but I got another one now and I think it might be Useful. But you should probably not show it to people. It can be a secret.

Timothy

P.S.

You smell nice
I like you
Do you like me?

Wanna start with that thing we talked about after the break?

Timothy (again)

In the wooden box lies a well-loved red-handled army knife.

For the teachers there are individual cards. They are clearly the result of good will and lack of penmanship. They are also clearly written by a young man who has been told that if you don't have anything nice to say you should try harder to come up with something.

The ones for Emma, Grace, and Jane have clearly suffered a lot of eraser-abuse. Because they had to be good. The one for Hank is very, very brief, the one for Bobby is mainly about throwing stuff, and the one for Logan merely says, I am really glad that you are my KP cause you're good at it.

[Private]

2004-12-08T20:48:47Z

Allison gave me this. It's a journal. She said it was good to write things down when you didn't have someone to share them with. And when I told her that we never share things she said I was a moron.

Anyways, I'm at Xavier's now.

It's a place for mutants.

Because I am a mutant.

And it's so not fair cause none of the other kids look like mutants. They all just look like normal people. And that's not fair.

I've got a teacher who's like supposed to help me with my mutation and things. He is named Logan and I'm ~~a bit scared~~ not sure what to think about him.

The Headmaster's sort of strict. Kind of.

And there's Miss Frost. She's a teacher too. She doesn't look like a teacher at all. She looks like one of the girls in that movie. The one where they're like really pretty. And keep getting their T-shirts wet. I liked that movie.

And I've met Kate too. She's a ~~girl~~ student. She's got red hair.
She's nice. Even though she talks a bit funny. But that's because she is from Minnesota.

Then there's Bio but I don't wanna talk about that cause I think she noticed that I was a bit ~~scared~~ nervous because the Doctor is really really really big.

And that other thing. I haven't told anyone.

And now I have to go eat dinner.

In the Hallway [locked to wx_cyclops]

2004-12-06T16:34:36Z

Timothy had no idea about what had happened. And it was probably just as well. Miss Frost's speech had made him edgy enough.

He'd been meaning to find somebody to talk to about the whole getting-time-off-to-nap thing that Grace had suggested but had gotten sidetracked by some interesting smells. Coming from the lift. The lift with the keypad thing. He was now standing with his face pressed against the cool metal, sniffing. Scratching ever so slightly at the metal. Not really trying to do anything, just being curious.

Log: Timothy and Grace

2004-12-05T00:03:37Z

Who: Timothy and Grace
When: The day after the speech
Where: In the tree by the lake
What: Talking and climbing

It was a nice tree. Big and sturdy with lots of branches. Of course, it'd be even better in summer. When it had leaves. Now, it was pretty obvious that a fairly small-sized person was sitting in it. Trying not to be too noticeable. Timothy always felt better when he sat in a tree. And that had become even more true after - everything. He was a little cold, since he'd forgotten to put a jacket on. But he wasn't coming down. Ever.

Or - at least - not now. Not when he was the only freaky one.

Grace had wandered down to the lake -- the ice rink -- and skittered around on the surface for a while, promising herself that next time she would find her blades. Now she was headed back up to the mansion for some cocoa. She slowed and squinted into the branches of the large maple tree. Someone was...

"Timothy?" she called out, moving below the branches.

He hadn't seen her. He had smelled her but he still hadn't quite learned to pay attention to the nose, so the sudden voice startled him and he had to grab on tight to the branch he was sitting on. It was Grace. He looked down at her. Grace was nice. "Yeah?" A somewhat hesitant answer.

She bit her lip when he scrabbled for purchase, but once he seemed stable again, she put her hands on her hips. "Nice view?" she called out cheerfully.

"I guess." It was actually, with the frozen lake and everything. But he wasn't going to say that. Because he was upset.
And never coming back down.
Not when it was going to – be like that.

He hadn't really been able to formulate exactly what was wrong besides it being really unfair that he was still the only weird-looking one. But he was slowly getting there. Sometimes sitting alone in a tree helped you think about things and talk about them later.

"Oh great!" Grace said, and without further warning, jumped up and caught the lowest branch. She managed to get her feet on the trunk and hoist herself up and around. She climbed until she was on the branch to the left of Timothy and down a little. "Hey, you weren't kidding!" she said taking in the scenery. It was almost, but not quite, as good a view as from Bobby's ice tower. "So," she said casually, leaning back against the trunk. "Come here often?"

He was just staring at her, mouth agape, showing his pink, pointy tongue. Then he shook his head. Girls didn't normally like to climb trees. Not when they were like, adults. Which he guessed Grace sort of was. "It's a great tree." He sounded a bit more enthusiastic now. Company was nice. And it made him forget that his hands had gotten kind of cold. He looked at her, curiously. "Do you like to climb?" She wasn't bad at it.

Grace looked down at the ground. "Actually, I'm surprised I didn't kill myself getting up here, I haven't done that in ages!" She smiled up at Timothy. "My brother and I used to climb this one apple tree in our yard. It wasn't nearly as big as this tree, however." Of course, it had seemed it since she'd been younger, and smaller.

They sat in silence for a while, enjoying the view. Then Timothy scratched carefully at his nose and asked, "Do you like - miss him?" not quite looking her in the eyes. It's sort of embarrassing. Only small kids get homesick. And some of the others are like - from really far away and everything. But he still missed Mum and Dad. And Allison too he guessed. Sort of.

"Oh heck ya," Grace replied easily. "We email back and forth all the time and I try to call him every so often. It's just the two of us -- I mean, Mom and Dad, of course, but ... How old are you Timothy?"

"15." He still wasn't looking at her. Instead he concentrated on trying to get a piece of bark lose. Knowing that you could still miss someone, even if you were an adult, helped a bit, but still. Grace was a girl. That was different. "I've never lived somewhere else before."

"Your about the same age as Jon then" she said, watching him while looking at the view behind him. She shifted a little on her branch. "Me either. I mean, I was getting ready to go to college anyway, but decided to come here first..." She sighed a little. "It's really big and kinda scary at first, but once you start to get to know people, it gets a lot better."

He nodded a little, not looking quite convinced. "I've talked with Kate. She's nice. She's from Minnesota." There was another pause and then he said it. "I just thought - since it's a school for mutants . I thought -" He looked out over the lake and sniffed a little. "I thought that there'd be people like me." One thing was missing home. Another was missing - himself, really.

She looked at him full on then. "What do you mean, Timothy?"

Still not looking at her at all. Clearly, the bark he was trying to get lose and the frozen lake held greater fascination. "I'm still the only one who's -" He didn't really have a word for it. The other kids were mutants too. You just couldn't tell by looking at them. Which made him what they'd said at school. "A freak."

"Timothy, you are not a freak. And did you get a good look at the professors yesterday? You might have noticed a couple of them were blue. And furry. And what about Becca? Oh, you might not have met her yet... her eyes are ... well, hard to describe actually. And Jade's got green lips..."

He shook his head a little. "That's not the same. They're like - teachers." And then he finally did look at her. His eyes looked big and green and inhuman. "All the other kids look normal. And - and people will always be able to tell that I'm - not normal." The speech yesterday had made an impact on him as well. When he continued his voice was pitched even lower, with a steady purr beneath it. "I just want things to be the way they used to be." Trying to comfort himself, as he faced the unavoidable answer. Things would never be the way they used to be.

She laughed a little at that. "We're kinda teachers by default Timothy. Most of us were students just last year. We stayed on because we needed a little more help, or, like me, because I enrolled in the community college." She paused to consider her next words carefully, keeping in mind what she and Bobby had talked about in the kitchen. "That would be great, wouldn't it?" she said quietly. "Being able to go back home with your family and everything? But you know what? Around here, you are considered normal, and if you give us a chance, maybe we can be like, your adopted family." She offered him a smile, not knowing if what she was saying was going to help at all.

She's nice. She smells nice too and she isn't laughing at him. She doesn't think he is being an idiot. And if she was a student just last year she isn't really an adult. He looked away again, digging his fingers into the bark. And as he talked, the claws slid out and into the tree, as if being able to hold on somehow changes things. "Sometimes, if I catch a glimpse of myself in a window or something - I get scared." As long as you're in a tree, you can talk about lots of stuff you can't talk about on the ground. He looked back at her. "And I can't sleep. And stuff."

"Yeah, that's gotta be scary," she nodded. "You expect to see the same person that's been looking back at you for 13 years, and instead, it's like ... there's this stranger looking back at you." She studied him again. "Why can't you sleep? Bad dreams?"

He wrinkled his nose a little. "Nah. Not really. It's just - I can't sleep at night." He looked at her and suddenly grinned, showing small, sharp fangs. "I can sleep in class though. At least I could at my old school." He'd stopped plucking at the bark. "it's like - I have to go exploring sometimes. Even when I was at home. And I don't know why." He wasn't going to tell her about the voice He hadn't even told Mum about the voice.

She tried not to grin at him, she didn't want him to think she was laughing at him. "My cat never slept at night either," she said casually. "It was like had had to prowl the borders of his terrority, make sure no one else had claimed it." She paused again. "I'm not sure how they're scheduling things this year, but maybe you should see if you can work a free period into your's in the middle of the day so you can nap -- or make sure the profs know and allowances can be made."

He nodded a little. He can't really make up his mind whether being sort of cat-like is cool or not. It does make sense though. "Do you know who I should talk to about that?" Not that he really wanted to talk about it with anyone, but the thought of being able to sleep at noon, maybe in a warm sun spot ... The purr increased a little and this time it was more a sound of expected pleasure than nervousness

"Well, I think they'll probably assign each student a specific professor to go talk to about stuff like that, but if you haven't gotten to that point, ask Prof. Summers." Grace shivered a little. "Um, are you getting cold at all Timothy?"

He made a small, non-committal sound, He was kind of cold. And he'd more or less forgotten that he had decided never to come down again. Ever. "I'm hungry."

Grace nodded. "Food would actually be good about now." She looked down. "Erm, right. I forgot. I've always been better at getting up than getting down..."

"I can help." He jumped up and almost lost his footing. He managed to catch hold of an overhanging branch and look as if it was all planned. Sort of.

"Are you OK!?" Grace called, looking down from her branch. She studied her options, deciding that sliding down the next branch as slowly as possible was probably the best plan. "Um, I'm gonna try to come down to you, OK?"

"Wait!" He took off his shoes and threw them down on the ground before moving again. This time he actually did move with a sort of feline grace, moving closer to her so he could reach out a hand. "You can hold on to me. I won't fall." Hopefully.

She gripped onto his hand and swung one leg around the branch then slowly slipped off, bracing herself with the other hand. Luckily the branches weren't too far apart or she would have probably gotten stuck about half way. She bobbled a bit when her feet hit the second branch, and after she regained her balance, she grinned over at him. "one down, erm... how many to go?"

He grinned at her. "Well, for you probably two or three. I can jump from here though." He looked down. "Can you manage the rest of the way or do you want help?" He was sort of hoping she'd say she'd like the help. She smelled really nice up close. His nose moved a little.

"Um, do you mind helping me down 'til we're closer to the ground? I can't jump that well so I won't be able to till the last branch..."

Trying not to smile too hugely, Timothy slipped down to the branch under them. When he'd found his footing he looked up at her, eyes glinting. "I'm ready." He held up his hands, claws drawn as far back as they would go.

Grace repeated her maneuver with a little more ease this time, leaning heavily on his hand as she landed. "OK, that went well." She giggled a little. "This is me... not being ... graceful..."

He grinned too, though it was almost drowned out by the purr. He suddenly felt a little embarrassed, being so close to an older girl. Who smelled nice and - everything. "I'll hold on, till you're safely down on the next one." He dug his claws in.

She slipped down to the last branch, slipping a little. "Eep!" She caught roughly onto the trunk of the tree, hugging tightly until she was sure she wasn't going to fall. "OK, Timothy, you can come down now!"

He took as much of a running start as he could and jumped. He twisted halfway and realised he really should have gone one branch up before jumping. Still, he didn't fall, merely landed in a slightly awkward crouch, looking up at her. He'd never been good at sports or anything. But now - now he could see the appeal.

"Timothy!" she yelled when he jumped, but then watched as he twisted and landed. She let go of the trunk long enough to applaud heartily before she sat on the last branch and swung herself off. She landed a little rough too, but didn't completely fall. "You get a 10 from the Russian judge for that dismount," she said laughing. "I think he gave me a negative five!"

"I think you did fine," he said, charitably. You had to be careful with girls. They got upset about the weirdest things. He yawned hugely and shook his head a little, suddenly tired. Big thoughts did that to him. Luckily sometimes things made more sense once he woke up again.

She wrapped her arms around her, trying to warm herself a little. "Let's go in... do you still want to eat or do you just wanna head to your room for a nap?"

He should have brought a jacket. He could have offered it to her. They did that in the movies. And Allison said that as long as you respected the equality of the sexes, chivalry was a nice touch. Or something. Instead he just shrugged a little. "I think I'll just go sl-" getting cut off by another yawn.

Grace chuckled. "Come on, Timothy, let's go in. I need cocoa and you need to sleep." She linked her arm in his companionably and headed them off toward the main doors.