A/N: Well... here be the second chapter, everyone! to tell the truth, I wasn't planning on continuing this story, but there are two people I'd like to thank for persuading me to do so.
First be meh buddy Sa-Chan. I could never ignore a request from her, plus she told me I'd only continue the story if I valued my life XD. so many huggles to her!
Second is NAMEANDADDRESSWITHHELD. She's the only other person who gave me a positive review, so many kudos to you, man! plus, she's got a Lightning/Sally story going, and it's really nice that you're open minded n' stuff while at the same time liking the canon pairing. most sally/lightning fans are like, "OMFG SLASH EW." so yeah, you're really cool -
So without any further ado, here be teh second chapter! Oh, and I'M WARNING YOU RIGHT NOW that this chapter is the reason for the story's PG-13 rating. and it's for sexuality, go figure. nothing explicit or nothin' but still beyond my normal cutecute fluffbunny stories, so to say.
-----------
Disclaimer: See chapter one, pweeze.
-------------------
---------
-------------------
"There Was Only You and Me"
Chapter II - "At Peace"
-------------------
---------
-------------------
I walked as fast as I possibly could (without running) to my front porch. Still trembling, I fished my keys out of my pocket, found the right one, and unlocked the door, but didn't go in. For a moment, I stood there with my back facing the yard, trying to collect my thoughts from their scrambled state.
What was going on? I almost… no, there was contact, so I… did kiss him. I just… kissed my best friend. I covered my mouth with my hand, unsure of whether I was going to pass out or vomit. Not out of disgust, but out of confusion.
Then I realized that I hadn't heard his truck pull out of the driveway. I turned around to see what he was doing, only to find myself face to face with him. We both jumped backward, both having startled the other. I hadn't even heard him get out of the truck, or come up the porch steps.
His startled expression then faded into an uncharacteristically serious one. He opened his mouth once, but no sound came out. He closed it, looking frustrated, and was still for a few moments more. But then he finally spoke.
"Is that it?" he asked.
I looked at him, confused.
"'Thanks for the ride'?"
Oh.
"Now I know'd I ain't the smartest needle in the haystack, but I know'd that that ain't what you been wantin' to say to me."
To tell the truth, I never thought I would ever hear Mater talk with such sincerity. It almost made me chuckle, but I could imagine that wouldn't help the situation much. The bad thing was though, was that he was right, and he knew that I had wanted to talk to him. But how was I supposed to explain that even I didn't know what it was that I wanted to talk to him about?
I continued to look up at him. He was looking at me with a desperate look in his eyes, as if hoping I would give him the answers that he wanted to hear. But that could've meant any of two things. One was that I would just say that what happened in the truck was nothing, that I wasn't thinking clearly because I was half asleep. And two would be that I just come right out and say that I felt the same way for him that he must for me and -
Whoa, whoa, wait a minute. Feelings! Where'd that come from? Now it just sounds like I'm in… in…
No, no, no, that couldn't be it. There was absolutely no way Besides, I would've known if it was, I felt it with Sally before we broke up, and this is something completely different. It…
Oh Lord, no it wasn't. It… the feeling I have for him has a lot of the same things I felt for Sally, but… it was stronger. A lot stronger. What the hell was this! I suddenly felt so helpless.
"Jeepers Lightnin', what's wrong?" Mater suddenly asked me.
"Huh?" I choked out. He reached out a hand toward my face. What was he …
"You're cryin'," he stated worriedly. I was! When did this happen?
Hurriedly, I reached up and wiped at my eyes with my shirt sleeve. Pulling it away, I saw that there was quite a damp spot. That was so weird, I didn't even notice, or feel myself crying. And why was I even crying in the first place?
I noticed out of the corner of my eye Mater dejectedly put his hand back down. And based upon that alone, I had a feeling that he didn't want to hear me say that what just happened between us meant nothing to me. He… felt something for me.
I was hopelessly lost at this point, so I decided to go out on a limb. "What is this, Mater?" I asked with a tiny sniffle. He looked at me, and didn't look confused at all by what I meant.
"I… don't know," he said. "But…" He paused, and hesitantly took a step toward me. "What just happened… in the truck I mean, it was… well, it felt… good."
My heart leapt at his words. But as I looked at him, it was clear that he was having a hard time getting out what he wanted to say.
He continued. "I guess I just… want to know if… did you…?"
Without really thinking, I took a step toward him, and after his movement toward me, there wasn't much space between us now. This was enough to get him to stop speaking, but I already knew what he was going to ask.
And I already knew my answer. "Yeah, Mater… I did."
His eyes lit up in that childish way they always did when he was happy. But behind that, something much deeper shone in his eyes. "Really?" he asked. "You felt -,"
"Yes," I answered. "I don't know why, or where it came from…"
I took another tiny step forward, and the happiness in his expression quickly melted into a dazed one.
"But I do know…" It was becoming increasingly harder for me to talk. It felt like my heart was going to leap out of my throat at any second. We were so close now, and I was suddenly thankful for the fact that it was nearly two in the morning. I could only imagine what would happen if someone were to walk by right now.
We grew closer still. "I do know… that I want -,"
The touch of his lips on mine silenced me completely. Even gentler than it had been in the truck, almost as if to make sure I wouldn't run away again. And when I didn't, he made a move to apply more pressure to the kiss. As carefully as he could, his hands made their way to my shoulders. It was obvious that it was his first time doing anything like this. So I brought my arms up and around his neck, pulling him closer.
I felt numb. It was unlike anything I had ever felt before in my life, and there were absolutely no words to describe it. Something inside of me let go, and it felt beyond wonderful. After weeks of having that horrible tension inside of me every time I saw him, it completely evaporated into our kiss. I… never wanted it to end. This was the first time in my life that I felt as if I didn't have anything to care about. The world could've ended around us, and it wouldn't have mattered. I never felt this light before, I never even felt this way when I was with Sally. But I wasn't going to concern myself with her at the moment.
My knees started to feel weak, and it only took a couple of seconds for me to fall down to them, dragging Mater down with me. Our kiss still didn't end, but after a few seconds we parted and looked at one another. At some point during the kiss, my hands had wandered to his chest, and his had found their way through my hair. Both of us were breathing heavily.
And then he smiled at me, and I swear I almost melted. No sight in my life had ever made me feel more elated. I let out a small chuckle, and I felt tears well up in my eyes again. Blinking them away, I smiled back at him.
"Dang'gum," he said in an 'I can't believe it' tone. "Boy I tell you what, I never thought I could be happier than I was on the day I opened up my junkyard."
He stopped, and then leaned in and pressed his forehead against mine. "But ya sure proved me wrong," he finished. I laughed again, and with that, I pulled him closer to me, and kissed him again. My arms snaked around his middle and I clung onto his flannel. And all in an instant, the laughter and innocence was gone. I felt one of his hands travel to my mid-back, and the other found itself a spot on the back of my head, where Mater took it upon himself to deepen the kiss.
And to think that when I first met the guy, I thought he was this repulsive, unintelligent hillbilly who was nothing but an annoyance. And now here I was, holding on to him for dear life, kissing him with all that I had in me.
Funny little world, wasn't it?
It was then that Mater suddenly pushed me closer to the front door, but without breaking the kiss. He grabbed hold of my upper arms and gently slid me backward. I let out a muffled "mmph" as I felt my back make contact with the wood of the door.
I had no clue why he was doing this, but I really didn't care. Nor was I about to break away from him to ask. I'd ask later.
I moved my hands upward away from his back, and up to his head, entangling my fingers with his hair. It was unusually soft, something I didn't expect, so I pulled off his hat and tossed it on the porch somewhere so that I could touch more of it. I think that under any other circumstance, he would've run off after it, but at the moment he obviously didn't care what was on his body or not.
I immediately blushed as the thought had crossed my mind. God, I just figured out how I felt about him. I didn't need to be thinking about… well, that.
If I could've, I would've shaken my head. But without doing so, I cleared my head the best I could. I wasn't going to let my nervousness of what was going on kill the moment. I'm sure Mater was just as nervous about it as I was anyway. So I kept on clinging to him, absorbing every second that passed like it was the most valuable treasure on Earth. And to me… it was.
After what felt like hours, we finally broke apart. I felt flushed all over, and I was panting like crazy. How long had that lasted? I felt like I hadn't breathed in hours. But that's how long it could've been since we got out of the truck, for all I knew.
Mater then leaned in and kissed me quickly on the lips, and then moved downward and began planting soft kisses on my neck. Each one was warm, and left a tingling sensation behind. I felt something inside of me ignite, and it took all I had not to let out a gasp. My hands still rested on his neck, but my fingers were now digging into his skin.
God, who knew he had it in him?
"Mater," I whispered, trying to get his attention. There was no way we could keep this up out here.
A few seconds later, I heard an "Mm?" come from him. I put one of my hands down onto the porch floor, the other still hanging onto his neck. He was kissing my collarbone now.
"We should probably…" I paused for a moment to regain my composure. "Go inside."
For a few moments, I wondered if he heard me, because he didn't stop. I was about to repeat myself though, when he finally lifted his head away from my neckline. And for some reason, he suddenly looked terrified.
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't've gone so far," he said out of nowhere. "I just…" He didn't finish his sentence. Instead, he started to stand up, and for a moment I wondered if he was going to leave. Just incase though, I immediately reached out and grabbed his hand before he could go anywhere else. Why did he get so upset all of a sudden? Where did he get the idea that I was mad at him?
"Mater…" I didn't know what to say. With a bit more effort than usually needed because my whole body was weak at this point, I pushed myself up onto my feet. I looked up at the man before me, who was looking back down at me, looking as though terrified I was going to punch him in the face.
I raised my other hand to his face and rested it on his cheek. "Mater, what are you talking about?" I asked. He didn't expect that one. "I didn't mind, there's nothing for you to apologize for."
He hung his head downward, and then looked back up at me. "Really?" he asked in a childish voice. I laughed. "Of course," I said immediately. "I don't know where you got the idea that I did. I mean, I…"
My smile vanished. My gaze drifted to the wood by my feet, and I began to think. Was it… really? It was too late to go back on anything now, but was that really what I felt for him? I didn't want to tell him anything that wasn't true, but…
I turned my eyes back to his once again, and all at once, I knew. I knew this wasn't just out of loneliness from losing Sally. This wasn't some spur of the moment, never gonna happen again thing. What I felt for him truly had to be…
"Love…"
Mater raised an eyebrow. "Huh?"
I rested my gaze upon him once again. Smiling, I finally said, "I… I love you, Mater."
His eyes shot open, and he looked at me incredulously. And for a good few seconds, he stayed like that, completely frozen. Though after a while he finally managed to smile. He placed his other hand atop the one I had on his cheek, and smiled at me like I've never seen him smile before. And I've seen him smile a lot. But out of the millions of times I've seen him happy over something, this was truly the happiest I've ever seen him. Then I noticed the tears that were shining over in his eyes, and I brushed them away as they fell.
"Lightnin', I… I never thought this coulda…" he said between chuckles. But it was like the kind of laugh that you let out when you come across something absolutely unbelievable. It started to concern me for a moment, but then his laughter subsided, and he looked at me with sincerity again. He then took both of his hands and placed them on either side of my face.
"I love you too," he whispered to me in a tone I didn't even know existed. And then he brought me in for our fourth kiss that night, but it was much lighter than the one we had shared beforehand. This one was more of a reassurance, letting each other know how the other felt, and how much we meant it. It didn't last long, either. But when we parted, I took hold of his hand, smiled at him, and lead him inside the house.
Once we were inside and I had closed the door, it didn't take long for us to pick up where we had left off before. He sat me down on the couch in the living room and began kissing at the nape of my neck again. The best I could with the angle we were in, I began unbuttoning the white shirt he wore underneath his flannel, and the rushing feeling that went through me as I did so was incredible. This was my first time… um… undressing anyone. And as I realized this, I blushed even more so than I already was. But despite the fact that I could barely feel my fingers now, I kept going down the line.
He pulled away from me, and the look in his eyes was indescribable. For a moment, we stood still, just taking in the moment, and taking in what it was we were actually doing. What we were about to do. Our eyes voiced the same question of assurance to one another. Are you sure? Are you sure you're sure? And when neither of us protested the situation, we kept going.
He leaned in and kissed me, and I returned it with much fervor. His hands moved to the collar of my shirt and he began to unbutton it. A shiver went down my spine and I tried my hardest not to start trembling. But when he got to the bottom, it was more difficult than ever. Breaking away from the kiss, he gently pushed the shirt down off of my shoulders, his hands brushing across my now bare skin. I drew in a sharp breath at the touch, more shivers going through me. But once the dizziness blew over, I shook the sleeves away from my wrists, and tossed the shirt to the middle of the room somewhere. His hands moved up to my neck, and upward into my hair, and there was a warmth like no other that came with his touch. I took hold of one of his hands and placed it on my chest, kept it still for a moment, then slowly dragged it down my skin. Mater's blush grew a deeper shade of red at this, and he looked so cute at that moment that I almost laughed. But instead, I just smiled at him and let go of his hand. He let it linger in the spot right below my ribcage for a second, but then brought it up a little ways. He put his other hand near the same spot, and gently began to push me onto my back, and I gladly succumbed to it.
I was now quite underneath him, but still propped up a bit by one of the couch pillows. At some point we started kissing again, and I reached up to him to finish unbuttoning his undershirt. Once I finished with the last one, I peeled both layers of clothing off of him at the same time. He moved to pull them off, but carefully enough so as not to break away from the kiss. And for quite a while we did nothing but stay locked in each other's hold, and sharing a very passionate kiss.
But when we did finally part, I couldn't help but let out a tiny "oh" as I looked at him. Shirtless, no hat, brown hair going this way and that, and a look in his sparkling emerald eyes that that said to me, 'I love you and only you… so very, very much.' God, how did I ever think he was an eyesore? Right now there were no words for how beautiful he looked to me, and I wanted nothing more than to take all of him in at once. So I reached up and placed my hands on his shoulders, and pulled him closer to me. Immediately he began kissing my neck again like it was an assigned job, though now that my shirt was no longer in the way, he continued on down to my chest. And now instead of them being warm, his kisses turned hot on my skin, and I let out the smallest of moans. My fingers dug deeper into his shoulder, leaving little white imprints.
And then, all at once, I felt at ease. Despite his kisses moving further and further downward, despite our heavy breathing, despite the passion that so thickly hung in the air, I felt more at peace with everything than I ever had before in my life. I'd only heard of this kind of happiness in movies and books, never in reality. But if I were to guess on how it felt to those characters in love stories to be with the one they loved, I would be pretty confident in saying that what I felt now was close to it, if not the same thing.
About a year ago I never would have thought about finding this kind of bliss with anyone else. Sure, I wanted women, but nothing concerning real feelings, or love. But now, there was nowhere else on the planet that I would rather be than in the embrace I was in with Mater right now.
Nowhere…