Heat
Chapter 7 – Basics

"Oh RJ..." A sing-song voice purred next to his ear. The bound and blindfolded Wolf could feel her breath dance across his stomach and his mouth slid lower on his body, her lips and teeth occasionally grazing over his heated flesh. After a life time of sweet agony she found their desired destination. With a wicked giggle, she was on him. Her tongue doing things that would make ice shiver...

"RJ wake up!" The stiff wolf was jolted away by the removal of his blanket. Blearily he peered around, his eyes red and rimmed with dark bags from not sleeping.

"Lily?" He croaked, his throat raw and cracking. The girl tsked as she rang out a damp cloth and placed it on his forehead.

"You worried yourself sick yesterday." She said as she took his temperature. 101, better, last time she checked his sleeping temperature it was 103.

"Wha' time izzit?" He muttered blearily.

"Nine Am." RJ pushed his protesting muscles into getting him into a sitting position.

"Whoa! Don't you even think about getting up, Fran, Casey, and Theo are taking care of JK today." It took less than a fraction of her strength to push him back into the chair and she re-tucked him under his blanket. Without a thought to the act, she pressed her lips to the master's heated forehead, leaving a sensation behind as she got up to fetch him a glass of water. RJ once comfortable in his chair again, started to drift back to sleep. "Oh no you don't!" An ice cold, dripping, washcloth found his face and neck, jolting him back awake.

"I'm tired!" He groaned, protesting her abuse of his person. Lily poked him to prevent him from falling back asleep.

"Yes, and if you sleep any more you'll really be sick."

"Sleep is good for the sick."

"Not if you're simply run down. RJ you're not sick, your body's just trying to tell you to relax." He gave her a half lidded glare.

"It's like you don't know me at all."

"Get up; we're going to the Zoo. The fresh air will do you wonders."

"You told me not to."

"I changed my mind."

"You know, if you weren't in heat, I'd sock you."

"Still doesn't change the fact that you're taking me out today."

"The zoo smells..." He protested childishly.

True to his prediction the zoo smelled like something dead and digested. But also, to her credit, the "fresh" air did calm his queasy stomach, not to mention a whole day with Lily all to himself was something he guiltily looked forward to.

"Ooh! Let's get Theo a Monkey!" Lily said as her arms steadily filled with animal plushies, only to be cycled off into RJ's longer arms for her to refill hers as she rounded the gift shop once more.

"Don't you think you're making me buy enough crap?" RJ didn't want to complain, after all Lily was happy, and they were doing something that vaguely entertained them both. But after the various rides the Zoo hosted, and the food, and the animal interactions, and the food, and the carnival games for even more crap, though he did score a sweet looking inflatable Alien doll, the Wolf was pushing the date of his "out of the red" goal by years at a pop.

"Aw, but Theo's terrified of Monkeys, it'll be a great gag gift!"

"As much as that sounds fun, we still have half the day to go through, and I'm dwindling in funds." Currently, he wasn't going to get out of debt till he was eighty, he was sure.

"Aw, alright, let's put most of these back." Slowly she put the dolls back till she ended up with just five. RJ still winced; they just HAD to be the expensive, really nice, ones. "We're keeping these." The Cheetah declared. RJ looked at the Beanie Baby brand toys with thinly veiled contempt as he dug out his abused credit card. The dolls were purchased, bagged, and hastily grabbed, as the man quickly dragged the woman out of the gates to the zoo before she made him buy anything else.

"Remind me never to take you shopping." RJ muttered as he started up his van, before driving out of the vast parking lot.

After the toys and other junk purchased at the Zoo were deposited into the back of the van. RJ asked what was next up in her mental agenda. He really didn't mean to, it just slipped out and he certainly couldn't take the words back now.

"Lunch." The wolf grinned in wry humor and satisfaction at the suggestion.

"Damn girl, we just cleaned out the Zoo of all its unhealthy junk food." He teased

"But that was three hours ago! And Master Puck and Swoop both warned me to constantly have something in my stomach or the cramps will begin."

If those were anything like regular female time cramps… RJ shuddered at the mere prospect. "What sounds good?"

Lily paused in an over dramatic thought gesture, going along with the easy fun atmosphere between the two. "Tex-Mex. Let's make a picnic of it."

RJ laughed. "If that's what my Cheetah wants that what she gets!" He cheered, before pausing to let his words sink in. A shot of dread bolted through him. Out of the corner of his eye nothing seemed too changed in her demeanor. Maybe she hadn't heard? He prayed to whatever deity happened to be available at the moment, before turning into the nearest Taco Bell.

Sadly his prayers went unheeded.

Lily wasn't sure what to make of that statement, but she certainly wasn't appreciating the little flips her heart started doing in response.

The earlier tension seemed to have disappeared in the bright warm sunny field, they had found outside of town. Off to the distance, the tree line of a forest sloped up to the mountains. An old blanket they had found in a garage sale on the way to the field separated their food from the flowers.

Lily ran her hand over the old fabric, marveling at the soft texture of the thing, while RJ busied himself with the food and drinks. A cup of orange soda found her hand and drew her attention from the worn bedding. She smiled her thanks and downed the cup, thirstier then she realized. The cup was refilled without her even asking.

"RJ, I was wondering, has my heat been bothering you at all today?" She asked idly. RJ paused; now that she mentioned it, it was really hard to smell her over the other surrounding smells.

"Not really, I guess it's just hard to smell you over the surrounding scents, like at the zoo, I really couldn't smell anything other than animal shit and people's collective smell. Right now I can smell it, but it's fighting with the food and the surrounding flowers and trees." He didn't tell her he could smell an oncoming storm too. Lily frowned.

"So that means everything you've done today was on your own!" She said, happy that his enjoyment of her company was genuine, and not the product of a hormonal need to screw like bunnies.

"Yeah, that's a fair assessment." He said cautiously. "But it's not your scent that's what the underlying cause is; it's the pheromones causing the scent. I'm just not getting a nose full today that's all."

"Would you like to?" She purred, leaning into him, her eyes glowing. RJ dropped the cup of soda in his hands in shock and lust, as a wave of her scent hit him directly. Her eyes widened, and she jerked back.

"Oh Jeez! I'm so sorry RJ. The Cheetah... she's playful today." Lily lied.

Cub! What have I told you about getting your ass in gear?! I warned you didn't I? If you did not take an active investment in this, I would do something to remedy the situation!

RJ's not interested in me. Lily shot back to the growling cat.

Did he not complete your human mating ritual satisfactorily? Lily couldn't help the small blush as she grabbed a fistful of napkins and wiped at his shirt, trying to get the liquid out, all the while apologizing

There are steps to this, there are many dates before the... uhm mating... comes in. Lily attempted to pacify her inner beast.

Bah, your human way takes too long, and I will be very put out if you let this mating cycle go before you finally get around to claiming him.

"Interesting conversation?" RJ asked, his eyes glittering in amusement. Lily shot up to meet him in the eye, before looking down and blushing harder.

"How did you know?"

"I just told you we might as well give up cleaning the shirt, I'm going to be sticky it I don't take it off, and I'd rather risk sunburn then be sticky." Lily meeped and pulled her fist full of shredded cheap napkins from his grasp. Her eyes flickered over him as he got up slightly and removed his dirty shirt in a fluid movement that Lily felt should be illegal to employ when doing something as simple as taking one's shirt off. Her eyes swept over his lean frame again. Not an ounce of fat to be seen and the perfect amount of muscles, not bulky but not bones either. Lean.

Ooh... she was pretty sure both her and her Cheetah had critiqued.

"So... let's eat!" He said nervously at the look Lily was giving him. He was fairly sure Cheetah's didn't engage in the practice of eating their mates... or suitors... or whatever he fell into. But that didn't escape his thought track as he watched her watch him. Lily broke her staring to interest herself in the food.

Lily was mid bite of her Taco Supreme when she let loose a heavy growl and put it back down on her wrapper. She grabbed the hem of her shirt and lifted up.

"Lily! What are you doing?!" RJ cried, grabbing her arm to keep her from disrobing herself.

"I'm in a fucking proverbial oven over here," she hissed. The gentle heat she had felt all day was blossoming into a full on heat wave, like standing-next-to-an-active-volcano hot. She jerked her arm out of his hold and yanked her shirt off, sighing in relief as a cool breeze hit her stomach and chest, relieving her of the heat. RJ shut his eyes and looked away.

"Lily you can't wander around in your bra..."

"Why not? It's not much different from a bikini top." The yellow ranger was tapping heavily into her inner Cheetah; no other force on earth could get her to flash her teacher like this.

"Lily... I am a man..." He gritted out. His eyes firmly shut.

"Well noted. But RJ you don't feel like you're trapped in a sauna. I do... and I warn you now, if I don't get respite, the pants come off next."

The Wolf Spirit laughed as RJ shook from fighting his desire for the eighteen year old next to him. And for once the Spirit had nothing to do with it on either part.

The food had been consumed and the trash tied up neatly in the plastic bags they had been bought in. Lily, true to her word, had divested herself of her pants, and refused to be apologetic about it.

In fact, RJ noted sourly, she seemed damned pleased about it.

Lily laid on the blanket behind the ramrod-backed Master, who had taken to meditating facing the opposite direction of her. A part of her was horrified at what she had done, practically prancing around in her undies in front of her master. But the Cheetah had taken dominance, pleased by the woman's resourcefulness, and that part had been riding the high RJ's own pheromones were giving her.

"RJ... I wanna play... come play with me." She purred as she got up on her hands and knees and crawled over to the man, whose back had miraculously gone straighter and stiffer than before.

"Go put your clothes back on." Lily wrapped her arms around his bare torso and scraped her teeth against his should enticingly.

"Play with me first," her pout evident in her voice. RJ shifted, trying to loosen up some room for his growing parts.

"No, clothes first." He had a fairly good idea that her Cheetah was in control at that moment, which made things better and worse. Better because he could safely say it was not his darling sweet innocent Lily groping him. Worse because it wasn't his Lily.

"Nope, play." She insisted, her hands drifting lower. RJ gulped as her thumb brushed the underside of his navel. He grabbed her hand and removed it from stomach.

"Lily. No. You don't know what you're saying."

"Wanna bet?" RJ groaned as she gently bit down on his shoulder. "Now run."

RJ panted as he tore across the field for probably the seventh time, Lily hot on his tail whooping with laughter and the thrill of the hunt. Even he had to admit the game was exhilarating. As some point he had lost his second article of clothing in a near tackle where she had grabbed his pants and he had escaped by removing them. Their clothes had made a small pile on the blanket in the middle of the field. Right as he had made it to the shade of a particularly spread out tree, his was on his back with Lily straddling him.

"I win." She purred, her eyes a bright golden yellow from her tapping into her Cheetah Powers. Slowly she leaned down, a devious grin stretching her lips till they found the juncture of his neck and shoulder. His eyes opened wide at the sensation of her lips tongue and teeth. Hands found her waist and instinctively she began to grind herself against him.

"Lily!" He bit out raggedly. She pulled up from her ministrations, looking much like the cat who ate the canary. Her expression dropped.

"RJ..." She began. The mood shattered. Then he felt it, the stinging, burning, feeling of something on his back. They got up, both of them covered in red welts and itching like hell.

"What the?!"

"There must have been Poison Ivy in the field!"

"Let's get out of here!" The two danced around, trying not to scratch their various itches as they gathered all of their effects and ran back to the van.

It was the midday, dead hour, where they were lucky if a single customer came in.

Casey flipped the page of his magazine when the light of a car flicked across the walls. He perked up and him and the other two shot up to provide excellent service to whomever it was. His jaw dropped and Theo fell over when the two people did finally come out of the bright light into the place.

"Oh my." Fran began, as Lily and RJ came into the store. In their underwear, and covered head to toe in red welts.

RJ, ever good humored about any situation, tossed his keys to Fran and told her to park the van out back.

"Casey, run into town and go grab a large... no industrial sized bottles of Poison Ivy relief. And someone please pick Theo up off the floor." Then he followed Lily up the stairs. Casey and Fran looked at each other, Fran's hand still suspended where she had caught the keys. 'Poison ivy' they mouthed together. For lack of anything better to do in such a situation, Casey and Fran started laughing their guts out and did as RJ told them.