-PatB-
"Black as a raven's wing," Amy says, her fingers carding through my hair, and I open my eyes to look at her. She's wearing one of my shirts and a set of pajama bottoms someone found her yesterday, her feet tucked under the blanket at the bottom of the bed, the air having cooled to warm, but not sweaty overnight, her hair bright like a new penny, her brown eyes lightened by her new hair color to almost gold.
"This hair color makes your eyes so pretty, like a sparkly vampires," I tease her, before leaning forward for a kiss.
Her mouth still tastes of mint.
"Sparkly vampires are such," she pauses, "Stop me if you don't want to hear me rant,"
"If you want to complain about sparkly vampires, I have no reason to stop you."
She looks at my smile for a moment, then proceeds to rant about the entirety of Twilight, with a short digression into Alice/Bella femmeslash, for several minutes. It is surprisingly easy to maintain a smile the whole time.
-PatB-
After our run, Pinky in a new pair of shorts today, and thus much less sweaty, I stop to look at my hair in the mirror, tilting my head back and forth, iridescent green highlights appearing and disappearing.
"Like it? I thought it would be pretty, and go with your bug-theme," Amy says, stripped down to her bodysuit.
"I like it, I think, could I get some more blues and purples?" I say, hanging up my costume.
She nods, smiling, "Of course."
"And we can turn it off if I want to be Taylor for a while?"
"I can turn it off now, but I'm not sure how to make it so you can turn it off," She leans back on her hands, feet crossed at the ankle, all of her exposed hair a sparkling, iridescent pink, "We can work on that later. What do you want me to make? You seem well set for power tools, and I think you can borrow, rent, or steal heavy equipment faster than I could make it."
"Relays would be nice, more spiders would let me make costumes faster, um," I shrug, "What do you want to make?"
"I don't know, that's why I'm asking you."
I look at her, shiny with sweat, her bodysuit drying on her, curves like a movie star, and a warm, lovely smile on her face and in her eyes, "Maybe you could make something to protect yourself? Something you can mass produce to help protect my women and kids?"
One corner of her mouth twitches up more, "Your women and kids?"
"Yeah, I hold something like a sixth of town, so I've got a lot of them to look after."
Amy giggles at me, blushing slightly.
I drop my face into my hand, "Not like that, and you know it."
"But," she's laughing, so I walk across the room and press her back into the bed.
"I only have one girlfriend, I've only ever had one girlfriend, and I would be entirely content if I only ever have one girlfriend."
"Would I be content?" she smiles at me.
"I'd hope so, this bed isn't big enough for more than three or four."
She wraps me up in her arms and legs, squeezing me tightly, "That's probably too many. I haven't even figured out how to keep one girlfriend, let alone three."
"If we keep going like this, we might figure it out," I hug her back, a little worried, "I'm not squishing you, am I?"
"No, it's good," she tightens her grip a moment, then lets me go, "Go take your shower."
"I won't wash the green out, will I?"
"It'll be fine."
I stop in front of the bathroom door, my back to Amy, peel off my bra, drop it on the floor, and pull my panties down until they drop, and kick them on top of my bra before closing the door behind me.
My underarms smell like sweat and peaches.
-PatB-
"Hey, Brain, how'd you take Lung?" Pinky asks me, looking up from the mass of former bugs in her hand.
"Which time?"
Her eyes get wide, "You got him more than once?"
"Yeah, the first time, my first night out heroing, heard him talking about killing kids. So I sicced all the bugs on him. Stung him enough before he got big that he collapsed before he could kill me. The kids turned out to be the Undersiders, but they took off when they heard Armsmaster coming. Armsmaster tranked him, took the credit."
"Second time, Kaiser was after him, with Menja and Fenja, and I had Bitch, her dogs and Sundancer. Bitch had just gotten back from dropping Newter back with Faultline's people, after we'd patched him up. Kaiser thought he could take Lung, and didn't. Menja got hurt, Kaiser was out, Sundancer didn't do any real damage to him, and got slapped by a hand as big as her torso, Bitch and he dogs knocked him around a bit, then he grabbed Bitch and stepped on her. He had me in his hand, so I stuck a bug in his eye and knocked him out, then carved out his eyes before he woke back up. He didn't escape that time."
"What kind of poison did you use on the bug?"
"Newter's blood."
"I'll have to ask for a sample, then." Pinky's shaped the mass into a very pretty double-edged blade.
"Is that strong enough to be useful?"
"Depends. I don't think it'll go through more than an eighth of an inch of steel, but it should drop people pretty well," she shifts her grip on it, holding it out hilt first, holding it near the guard but not by the blade.
I take it, "What does it do?"
"The flat of the blade is covered in modified jellyfish stinging cells, and the edge leaks venom when you stab something with it."
"What kind of venom?"
"A little bit of this, a little bit of that, spider, toad, snake."
"A bit extreme for self-defense. And we don't want someone to kill themselves playing with mommy's knife."
Her head tilts to the side, "True."
"Do you mind if I abuse it a bit?"
"It would help make the next one better."
I stab it into the brick wall a few steps away, full Psycho-style hammer blow, driving it in a couple inches, then press it to one side and the other, bending it flat to the wall. It doesn't break, and it returns to straight with no evidence of taking a set. I pull it back out, and the edge shows no damage, either. I look it over closely, no bending I can see, "Very interesting."
"Here," she hands me a leather-like sheath for it, so I cover it and slip it into my back compartment.
"Thank you," I tell her, then take her right hand in mine, and slip it into the pocket on a belt I'd made that morning. That done, I spin, bringing her to my left side, her arm around my back, and wrap my left arm around her shoulders again.
She smiles up at me, or maybe beams.
I ruffle her pink hair, pleased that the small gesture made her happy.
-PatB-
"I finished your bodysuit, finally," I tell her, stopping at Skitter's room after dinner, "Do you want to keep the jeans and t-shirt look?" I ask, checking over the separate top and bottom again, "I need to sew the buttons on, but if you'd like to try them on?"
"Sure," she says.
I look up to see her already out of her shirt, and her jeans sliding down her legs, her back to me as she shifts from side to side.
I must have made a noise, because she asks, "Do you like the view?"
"Yes," I manage after a moment.
"Good," she says, turning around as she pulls the sleeves of her bodysuit down, her breasts popping free with a jiggle, the top of them as red as her face, A moment later she's facing me in her matching grey underwear.
Her blush fades as her smile grows, and I continue to stand, just looking at her. She poses, feet spread, hands on her hips, head high, a big grin on her face, "I really like that you think I'm pretty. Let's try the new costume," She holds out her hand.
I hand over the bottoms, and focus on fit and finish as she pulls the thick spider-silk up. She pulls and adjusts for a moment, getting the waistband settled around her bellybutton, "Top."
Once she has it on, the straps dangling about her thighs, I weave one of the straps for her, under the three cross straps on her thigh, up over the bottom, under the middle and top, over the top, then back under the middle, "And a button on the middle strap."
"Let's get this strapped up, first," she says, starting on her other front strap.
I weave the side strap near me, and wait while she gets the other side done. She bends and twists, "What sort of forces are you thinking about that it would need a button?"
I grab the bottom hem of her top, pick her up with a grunt, and give her a gentle shake up and down.
"Maybe a crotch-strap instead?" she asks, "That would keep the bottom hem a little more contained, and thus less likely to get caught."
"Maybe. Do you like it, otherwise?"
"Kinda perfect," she pulls my mask off, and kisses me soundly.
-PatB-
A/N: Variation on the theme of three-bar slider, or MOLLE straps.
2 December 2017: 42516 words. Reposted to change the tense on one word. sigh.