To the Power Born: A Tale of the Slayers
Part 3: Fallen Hero, Rising Star
Aunt Sh'rin tried to reach through Colin Goddard's pain in every way she knew how that didn't risk hurting him badly or permanently for most of an hour.
She tried talking first, just explaining rationally that pain was a defense mechanism, and that once it had served its purpose, you stopped using it as such. No result. Colin listened, he understood— but some part of him did not believe that he deserved to be free of the pain, or that it was a defense mechanism, or… something.
Then she tried hypnotism— a skill she'd had for years, but hadn't had cause to use often. He wouldn't go under, which didn't surprise me— a bad thing for a super hero to be an easy hypnotic subject, you know?
Finally, Aunt Sh'rin broke out the magic. She tried to enter his mind, at first with a simple communication spell that failed dismally, then with a more complex and powerful spell that should, by rights, have let her see the cause of his pain as a three-dimensional image, complete with motion and sound, like a movie. That, too, failed completely.
Finally, Aunt Sh'rin broke out the most powerful spell that she knew that didn't risk causing Colin some sort of damage, one that would allow her to literally swap points of view with him. She would experience the events that had hurt him so, without any emotional or mental connotations, but with full sensory impact, then the spell would give her Colin's take on events— and give him her take on those events.
It bounced. The magic reached his mind— and rebounded away, like a basketball thrown at a brick wall with maximum force. Instead, the spell hit me, and Aunt Sh'rin got my take on the events of the night, and I got hers— warm and fuzzy feelings ensued, because she was very proud of me.
"Colin… I am sorry," Aunt Sh'rin said when the spell had failed (and run its course in our heads). "I cannot believe that… oh, Colin, I cannot accept that one man could be to blame for all that you take on yourself. You must learn better, must come to see… but your pain is too much. For now… I am sorry, but for now, I cannot help."
Colin nodded slowly— and bowed to her, thanked her for trying.
We went inside, and found the others sitting around in the living room, talking quietly. When we came in, all heads swiveled towards us— and everyone stared with various expressions, some of disbelief, some of pure delight, most a mixture of the two. Uncle Ballard, however, looked like a man who had died and gone to geek heaven.
"Colin Goddard," Uncle Ballard said slowly. "The name felt familiar, but I couldn't place it. Then Dawn ran the 'net for a bit, poked around— and she found a lot of information on the man… the man I think you are.
"You're Starpulse, aren't you?"
Colin… drooped. Uncle Ballard looked puzzled as Colin nodded slowly, like his head weighed hundreds of pounds and moving it that much took all of his energy.
"Colin… that's nothing to be ashamed of," Uncle Ballard said. "Man, you saved so many lives—"
Colin turned and went back outside.
"What— I don't understand, what did I say?" Uncle Ballard asked.
"Explain," I told Aunt Sh'rin— and I turned and went out after Colin.
He was standing in the back yard, looking up at the sky with tears pouring down his face.
"Colin… he didn't mean to hurt you," I said, taking one of his hands. "He doesn't know about… whatever happened."
Colin nodded, but didn't look at me.
"There's a plus to this," I said, but he only shrugged. "Colin… I don't know if you were a comic book character, a cartoon character, or in movies or novels— but obviously, there's fiction about you, here. So maybe the rest of us can find out what happened— and that may let us help you."
He only shook his head, still not looking at me. I understood what he was saying— but didn't let him have the satisfaction of being unopposed.
"Yes," I said, using my best 'don't mess with me' voice. "Yes, Colin, you do deserve to be helped. You failed once— but you tried! And Uncle Ballard said you saved a lot of lives, that counts, damn it!
"Since one of those lives was mine, I'm pretty much not gonna let you tell me you don't deserve to be helped, damn your stubborn ass!"
Colin looked at me, and in the starlight I could see his surprise at my forcefulness.
"Damn right," I said. "I'm a lot of things, Colin, but I'm not a quitter— and I'm not quitting on you. In fact, I'm not letting you quit on you.
"Deal with that!"
He blinked, shook his head a little ruefully— then bowed at me, acknowledging what I'd said, accepting it, but not necessarily agreeing with it.
"Men!" I said. "First Daddy fought his feelings for Mom for years, then Brian let Kimber get away from him, and Wesley! If not for Aunt Dawn and Willow, that idiot would have let Fred get away from him, which would have been unforgivable, and now you want to take the weight of whatever happened on your shoulders and deny that there could have been anything that makes it not totally your fault, and stop looking at me like that, I'm going to have my say, and the only way you're going to shut me up is to either open your mouth and ask me to or just kiss me, and I'll bet you won't d—"
Sometimes, it's nice to be wrong.
Colin took my face in his hands, cupping it gently-but-firmly, and he kissed me. I melted up against him, drew his tongue into my mouth, traced it with mine, darted mine into his mouth when his retreated, moved into his arms as his hands moved from my face to my waist. My arms went around his neck, his around my waist, and we kept kissing, tongues exploring each other's mouths, both of us breathing hard and fast. His right hand dropped tentatively from my waist to the upper curve of my butt, and I pressed myself against his erection, loving the feel of it against my belly. He got the idea, and both his hands dropped to my butt, cupping and squeezing— and I hopped up, wrapped my legs around him, sucking on his tongue now, and pressing my crotch against his, wishing I wasn't wearing jeans, hell, wishing I wasn't wearing anything!
For a long, electric moment, we kissed and I rocked against him, then he broke the kiss, panting a little, and looked at me— then over his shoulder towards the house.
I'm pretty sure that Colin meant to indicate "what would your parents think about this," but he didn't get to put that message across, because when he looked around to nod towards the house, he saw Mom standing on the back porch, leaning against one of the roof supports and looking amused.
Colin jumped, and squeezed me a little tighter in his surprise at seeing Mom there, but I will give the man credit; he didn't drop me, or shove me away. He did gently disentangle himself from me, and I let him, but once my feet were on the ground, he kept one arm around my waist, looked Mom in the eyes— and waited for her reaction.
"Well, I got to say," Mom said, smiling, "Jocelyn, honey, I can't fault your taste— this one's just plain luscious. Saved your life on top of that. I saw this comin' back at Rose's old house.
"Colin… first off, major points for not movin' away from her an' tryin' to pretend nothin' happened. Second… ain't no thing. Jocelyn's her own woman, and she's earned the right to do as she damned well pleases with her body and her life. Which ain't to say I wouldn't jump down your throat and tear your guts out if I didn't like you, but since I do… what happens between the two of you is your business. Third, don't you worry none about Whitey— man's perceptive to hell an' gone, he saw this comin', too, and feels like I do about it. That's why he asked your age early on, Colin."
Colin cocked is head in question, and mom said, "Me an' Whitey got married when I was sixteen an' he was thirty. So we'd be pretty much asshole hypocrites if we got too freaked over a big age gap, sure— but we did want to make sure you weren't way older than you looked. After all, we know a guy who's two hundred and sixty-seven, and don't look a day over forty.
"Course, he's also married to a thirty-seven year old, but, hey— as parents, we'd have had to draw the line somewhere!"
Colin looked sort of stunned— but he nodded and sketched a little bow mom's way.
"Anyway— you two want to come inside?" Mom said. "We'd like to see if what we did find out about you is true, Colin, or if it got… I don't know, muddled in transmission to the guy who wrote your comic book here."
Colin's face… closed down. Mom got it right away, and she said, "No, Colin— we don't know what happened to you that hurt you so, though we got an idea about who caused it.
"See, there was a comic book about you for about three years— then the guy what wrote and published it died, and the company folded up— and your story never got past the day you fought Madlight for the fourth time and put his ass down."
Colin blinked and stared then made reading motions, and held up three fingers.
"I'm not— oh," Mom said. "Colin, the comic went on for three years— but only covered about six months of time in the thirty-seven issues it ran. Now, seeing that you got your powers a little after your eighteenth birthday, well… there's a lot we don't know. What we do know came off of the Comics-Wiki website, so it may not be all that accurate. Whitey's done ordered the collections of your comics, though, so we'll be able to learn as much as we can."
Colin stared for a moment, then shook his head rapidly, like he was trying to clear it.
"Yeah, it would be weird to discover you were a comic character, I'll bet," I said. "So… you ready to face everyone, Colin? I'm sure Uncle Ballard will back off, now that he knows what's what.
"Besides, if you come in now, we can explain about Slayers, Watchers, Guardians— all the stuff you have to be wondering about."
Colin nodded emphatically, and we went into the house, holding hands. As soon as we were in, Uncle Ballard stood up and said, "Colin, I'm sorry— I didn't mean to upset you, I just… I don't understand, probably can't, but I won't push, or bring that up again— not until you're ready. Okay?"
Colin nodded, went to Uncle Ballard and shook his hand.
"Holy crap!" I said, smacking myself in the forehead. "I'm an idiot— worse, I'm rude!
"Colin, I need to make some introductions, I think— because I never introduced everyone!"
"Oh, hell," Dad said, shaking his head. "Oldest social trap in the book, too— the handicapped guy— which you are, sort of, being mute, though not through normal causes— gets ignored in some ways. I'm sorry, Colin."
Colin made a dismissive, "it's okay, I get it" gesture, and I introduced him to everyone, explaining that while I called Uncle Ballard and his family uncle and aunts, it was friendship, not blood, that made them aunts and uncle. Then I introduced the pseudo dragons, too— I'm thorough, and I grew up with pseudo dragons around, so they're a natural part of my life. But I could see, even with him still unable to smile, that Colin found them amazing, wondrous and delightfully new and different.
(Also, he seemed amazed— not upset, but surprised as hell— that Uncle Ballard had four wives, even if it was only legal for Aunt Dawn, and that I introduced Gwendolyn as "Mom and Dad's girlfriend, Gwendolyn Davies." He accepted it, though, which was good, since I'm bi as all hell, and want a relationship that covers both bases sexually for me. Even though I'd never actually had sex with a guy then, I already knew I wanted to— badly!— and I had hopes for that night! [Girls? I'd been having sex with girls since I was twelve. Just as precocious as my Mom, that way!])
"Okay, let's start by explaining us," Dad said. He grinned a little and added, "Wow, this is different— I've never really had to do this from scratch before. Or— Ballard, you want a shot at it?"
"No, you're the scholar, Whitey," Uncle Ballard said. "You handle it."
"All right," Dad said. "Listen, Colin… you need to understand that, regardless of what things were like where you came from, the supernatural exists here, is real. There really are ghosts, demons, werewolves… and vampires.
"Thousands of years ago, demons ruled the world, did for centuries. These were the pure-blood demons, and they had power like nothing we've ever seen. But they lost their hold on this reality, though we don't know how.
"The story goes that the last 'pure' demon to leave this world fed on human blood, then forced the human, just before death, to feed on its blood. By mixing their blood, it became a human form possessed, infected by the demon's— not soul, but essence. He bit another, and another, and they walk the Earth, feeding… killing some, mixing their blood with others to make more like them. These are vampires.
"After a time, some very powerful wizards got together and tried to create a power that could stand up to the vampires, fight them… and they bound it to a girl.
"The girl fought, eventually she died— and the power passed to another girl, and another when she died, and another when that one died, and so on down the millennia— until something happened that changed it.
"The men who'd summoned the power told their descendants, and those descendants became the Watchers, a group that trained and assisted the Slayer— but another group, formed in secret, felt that the Watchers were abusing the Slayer, using her and caring nothing for her. With the magics at their disposal, they foresaw a time when the Slayer would need help that the Watchers could not give— and they became the Guardians, all women, all skilled in magic.
"Fifteen years ago— the fifteenth anniversary is in three days— something huge happened, and the Slayer of the day— Buffy Summers— met something she didn't think she could defeat, something that threatened to end the Slayer line, that destroyed nearly all the Watchers… and the last of the Guardians, who'd been in a sort of magical sleep, awoke, and explained to Buffy a weapon that she had found, a Scythe made and enchanted by the Guardians to be used by the Slayer. The last Guardian was murdered before she could finish her explanation… but Buffy learned enough to make some guesses, guesses that paid off.
"Just before facing an army of Turok-han— the bald vampires that were trying to kill Jocelyn when you arrived— Buffy had Willow Rosenberg, the most powerful witch in the world (and a good witch) use the magic inherent in the Scythe to activate every single potential Slayer on Earth. Now there are over two thousand girls with the Slayer power, even after some serious losses.
"In three days, on the anniversary of that event, more will be activated. Every year, the Scythe activates the newest potentials on the anniversary of the first time it was used to do it, and we get between eighteen and thirty new Slayers. Nowadays, with us being out in the open, those girls contact us and come to school here, at a real school that's run by the head of the Watcher's Council, Rupert Giles, but that has a special curriculum for Slayers— more combat training, stuff like that.
"Anyway— only a couple of days after all Slayers everywhere were activated, before the original team had time to do more than put up a website to help girls who went looking on the web for why they suddenly had super powers, the Scooby Gang— the core group, consisting of Dawn, here, who's Buffy Summers's little sister, Buffy, her watcher, Rupert Giles, and her two best friends, Xander Harris (now her husband) and Willow Rosenberg— Dawn got an email from Rose, there, telling Dawn that she had Slayer powers— and so did her new girlfriend, Elaine. So the Scooby Gang came running, wanting to see why one city had two Slayers in it, and…."
Dad talked for over an hour, explaining the events that led up to the Battle of Bloomington— including my birth, how Mom had been activated the day of the Battle of the First, and been pregnant with me, how I'd had the Slayer power literally since before I was born, me and three other girls like me, and how we four seemed to have better control over our power than any others.
"… and in the last fifteen years, we've become accepted by a large part of the world," Dad finished. "We've got government sanction in most of the free world, and government tolerance in most of the places where we don't have sanction.
"The Watchers, backed by the Guardians as rebuilt by Sh'rin and Dawn, help the Slayers, and the Slayers do their best to help the world to be a better place.
"That's what you've fallen into, Colin— I hope it doesn't freak you out too much."
Colin looked around, shook his head— not in disbelief, but in amazement— then gestured around at us, all of us— and tapped himself on the chest. Then, to make sure we understood, he stood, tapped his own chest again— then made a motion like he was driving a stake into a vampire.
"You want to help?" Dad asked.
Colin nodded vigorously. He looked… hungry, eager— still unsmiling, but excited, interested. He raised a hand, made it pulse with the light he'd used when he first arrived, that had destroyed the vampires who'd been trying to kill me— and nodded sharply.
"Well… you'll have to learn a lot of things, Colin," Dad said, a little shocked by his eagerness to help. After all, he'd tried to help others and lost them, been horribly hurt by that— Dad expected him to not be ready to fight again, not yet, anyway. "And you don't face vampires— or any other supernatural threat— until we say you're ready. If an emergency pops up, that's one thing, but otherwise… not until we pass you. Can you deal with that?"
Colin nodded, almost-smiled, then stood and took a martial arts stance— definitely one of the karate forms, it was the most common karate stance.
"Lots to know besides martial arts, son," Dad said. "We'll give you some books to read later, and let you sit in on some classes for Watchers. You can join our martial arts groups, let us see how good you are. You can start Monday— you should take the weekend to… decompress.
"One other thing, Colin— and so help me, if you argue, I'll just sic Jocelyn on you. You're going to need clothes, some other basic necessities, a place to stay… and the Watcher's Council is supplying most of those things. I'm supplying the rest.
"The Council has money it will never spend, and you saved one of our Slayers— so the Council will outfit you with clothes, toiletries, some luxuries— a computer, a stereo, books, like that.
"I, on the other hand, will be supplying you with room and board. You saved my daughter's life, son— so if you argue, I'll have to have her kick your ass."
Colin looked… amused-annoyed for a moment, then stood, tapped his chest— and made dishwashing motions, then bent and yanked the starter cord on an invisible lawn mower, pushed it around the living room, and looked at dad with a raised eyebrow.
"That's fair," Dad said. "You can help around the house, too. Deal?"
Colin went and took Dad's outstretched hand, and they shook solemnly.
"Okay," Dad said. "Now… let me tell you what we've learned about you. If something we found is wildly wrong, let us know, okay? We'll work out a way for you to tell us what's what— probably more charades, which I will watch in silence, since I reek at that."
Colin nodded— and Dad told him what he'd learned about the hero that Colin Goddard had been, about Starpulse.
In 1998, on the Earth of Colin's birth, his parents had been astronauts, unmarried, not even dating. While they and one other scientist-slash-astronaut were stationed on Starlab Space Station, an orbital lab above the Earth, something had hit Starlab, something they'd thought was a meteorite at first. The third astronaut had died in the resulting explosive decompression, but William Goddard and Alicia Powell had been in another part of the station and had been able to seal it off before the air bled off. Unfortunately, the impact on the station also destroyed their space shuttle, and they had no way back to Earth.
NASA had mounted a rescue operation, but it had taken a week. In that time, afraid that they were going to die— Starlab's orbit had started to decay sharply— Will Goddard and Alicia Powell had turned to each other for comfort and had become lovers.
Colin Goddard was conceived in orbit some several hundred miles above the Earth, and was also bathed in the unknown radiations of the alien device that had been what actually hit Starlab, a probe from a race several centuries beyond Earth in their technologies. Those energies, along with his conception in a totally new environment for such things, had altered the DNA of the resultant child— Colin— in such a way that he had not died when, at the age of eighteen and a few weeks, he had been hit by a laser beam fired by a hi-tech terrorist attempting to take over his college class building (a Political Science class on American Politics and Government, of course).
Instead, Colin had somehow become a human stellar battery, channeling the power of a star— or something very like it— through his body, giving him unbelievable power.
His world had super beings already, though most had retired or gone "underground" after the public trust had swung against them in the late nineties, when a super hero widely respected by most of the world had been revealed to be a pedophile rapist who used the adulation given him as a hero to attract victims.
Colin, calling himself Starpulse, had gone a long way towards restoring that trust. He had fought fires, natural and manmade disasters, saved hundreds, maybe thousands of lives— and then a villain had come after him. Starpulse had fought down the power-hungry Praetor, whose physical strength and toughness dwarfed Colin's own, but who had no energy powers, put Praetor down when he attempted to destroy the United Nations building while that group was in session— and that had been the true beginning of his career as a hero. Restored faith in those with powers had led some others to come out of retirement, some new heroes to appear… all thanks to Colin Goddard, the hero called Starpulse.
"We know you fought several other villains," Dad said. "Madlight— that psychopathic laser-powered idiot seemed to be your worst enemy, and the man who was writing and publishing your comics died right after you put him in jail, finally, after your mother figured out how to hold him.
"Past that, we know nothing— but we do have suspicions.
"Colin, in the second-to-last Starpulse issue published, there was a scene showing an alien probe attaching itself to an Earthly communications satellite, and beaming information sent through the satellite back to a planet around another star— a planet inhabited by aliens built along reptilian lines. They— easy, son!"
Colin, on hearing the words "built along reptilian lines" had gone deathly pale, stood up— and a moment later, he'd started to sway, and sat back down suddenly, one hand pressed to his mouth, a look of sheer, unbridled hurt on his face.
"Okay, that's enough for now," Dad said— but Colin took his hand from his mouth, shook his head, made a talking motion with his left hand, a rolling "go on" motion with his right. Dad hesitated, then said, "Colin, I'm not sure I should."
Colin nodded, made that rolling motion again. Dad looked at me where I knelt beside Colin, now holding his left hand in my own.
"Go on, Daddy," I said quietly. "I think he needs to hear the rest if he's going to rest any."
Dad hesitated a little more, then nodded. "Okay," he said. "Colin, these aliens, they seemed… very militant. All carrying weapons, all belligerent. The scene showed one of them summoning another into an office with walls that were literally covered in what looked like stuffed animal heads and mounted weapons, and they spoke.
"The one who had done the summoning told the summoned one to take a destroyer-class vessel to Earth and take by force— no offer of doing it subtly or sneakily was made— every single super being that they could, especially the "superior human called Starpulse," and bring them back to the aliens' planet for analysis and reproduction. They commander also mentioned that their enemies— a race called, if I'm pronouncing it right, the Kholarmath— had sent a probe there years before, apparently looking for allies against the reptile guys, but that it had never sent any information back to the Kholarmath. They showed a picture of the probe, Colin— and it was the device that hit Starlab.
"I think— it was implied the Kholarmath went looking for help against the reptile-aliens, and that they accidentally gave you the potential for powers. That the other aliens wanted you was very, very plain— as I said, the commander-alien gave orders that you, specifically, be captured at all costs."
Colin leaned forward in his seat, gently freed his hand from mine— and covered his face with both hands.
"It was the reptiles, wasn't it?" I asked gently.
Colin only nodded, didn't even remove his hands from his face.
"Not your fault, son," Dad said, very gently. "Just in the three pages of comic that we found online, it was very plain that the tech those things had blew everything we have on Earth— or you had on your Earth— completely out of the water.
"Whatever happened… it wasn't your fault."
Colin only shook his head and shuddered. Dad saw that he couldn't reach Colin, not yet, anyway, and sighed.
"Okay— time for that later," Dad said. "Bedtime, now. Colin, we've put you in the guest room on the third floor— I put some sweats that should fit you on the bed up there, you can wear those tomorrow, until we can get you outfitted better. Brand-new toothbrush and travel-sized toiletries in the bathroom off that room.
"Colin… I don't want to embarrass you, but I need to be honest with you, and the best way to do that is to be plain; son, if you end up not alone in bed tonight, I will be neither surprised nor upset, and neither will Chantelle. We know that Jocelyn's very attracted to you, we suspect that she's starting to have strong feelings for you— and thanks to telepathic pseudo dragons, I know that you two have kissed, even though Chantelle hasn't said anything aloud.
"I honestly don't mind, Colin. Jocelyn has been acting like a responsible adult for a while now, taking responsibility for other peoples' safety, actively working at learning what she needed to know to help the most people she could against the things that they can't defend themselves against.
"My daughter acts like an adult in the big ways— so we're going to treat her as an adult in the smaller ways, and let her make her own choices about who she loves and how she expresses it."
Colin blushed, nodded— and took my hand again, squeezed it.
"Okay," Dad said. "We'll see you at breakfast, Colin— and be warned, we all tend to have breakfast together, alternating houses. Here tomorrow, so you won't have to go anywhere— but there will be a whole bunch of people and pseudo dragons. All the adults here, all the dragons here, and all our kids— Jocelyn's brother and two sisters, and the six Ballard has by his various wives. Plus, all of the kids have their own pseudo dragon pals. I hope you don't mind a crowd…."
Colin looked a little surprised— but nodded and gave a thumbs up.
"Jocelyn, show him to his room, please?" Dad said.
"Just a second, here, Whitey, don't go rushin' them off," Mom scolded. "C'mere, Colin."
Mom hugged him and kissed his cheek, setting him to blushing. "That's for my daughter's life, buster— get used to it, I'm all about the physical affection."
Everyone shook Colin's hand, welcomed him to our world and our family, and Aunt Rose and Aunt Sh'rin both hugged him, as well. Then I led him upstairs, stopped at the door to the room that had been designated as his, took both of his hands and looked up into those gorgeous gray eyes.
"Do you want to be alone tonight, Colin?" I asked.
He shook his head, slowly but without hesitating or looking unsure.
"Okay, well… if I come in there to sleep with you, I'm not going to have just sleeping on my mind," I said, actually blushing a little. "I mean— if you need to just sleep and cuddle, cool, but if you don't need to not… oh, hell, I want you! If you want me and you don't need downtime, then you're going to get me."
Colin nodded, pulled me close, and kissed me, very gently, but with no doubt of his desire for me.
"Okay," I said against his lips. "Okay, then… I'm going to grab a shower in my bathroom, and… uh, do you mind if Royal comes in when we're ready for sleep and stays with us? He'll go out and stretch his wings while we're… busy, but after that— well, he's been sleeping in my bed since my bed was a crib."
Colin shook his head, reached up, stroked Royal's head, gave him a thumbs up.
"Okay," I said. "Okay. Um, I'll be over once I'm clean."
Colin nodded, kissed me again— god, he can kiss!— and went into his room while I went to mine, needing to shower alone because of all the gross that had happened that night. I wanted to be clean when I went to him, and I'd sweated my ass off, and then had vampires dust around me in numbers— I was covered in vampire-mud, ugh! Not sexy!
I showered, cleaned myself thoroughly, washed my hair even. I got out, looked at myself in the mirror on the back of my bathroom door, smiled and thought for the nth time that it was no wonder at all that people mistook me and Mom for sisters. We're almost twins in face and body.
I stand five-three— an inch taller than Mom peaked out at already, and I may grow more yet— and weigh a hundred and eight pounds. I've got great muscle tone, but I'm not any sort of bulky— just toned and sleek. My breasts are B-cups, and my nipples, like Mom's, are pretty much always hard, standing up from my breasts as high as the tips of my little fingers. I've got what Daddy calls "runner's legs and a swimmer's butt"— well toned in both cases, with slender-not-skinny legs and a well-rounded butt. My waist is small, making both breasts and butt pleasantly exaggerated. My pussy… well, it's right out there. For my fourteenth birthday, I got Mom to convince Willow to cast this nifty spell that used to be a thing with some lesbian cult of witches, and I have no pubic hair, never will again. Yum! Feels so much nicer, this way!
My face— I like my face. Oval, high cheekbones (but not razor-sharp, like Aunt Rose's— you could shave with her cheekbones, god, she's gorgeous!), strong enough chin, and I get occasional compliments on my smile from total strangers. My eyes are the only thing my Mom will admit that I got from my genetic father, and I'm kind of glad; I have violet eyes. (Mom admits that those eyes are seven tenths of why she slept with him.) I have hair the same color as Mom's, pale blond, but mine's wavy to the point of kinky— heck, it almost manages to be ringlets, but only almost and when it's really humid— and hangs to mid back, while Mom's is straight, and she wears it to the top of her butt. I'm not as tan as Mom, but I'm not pale— I have a light natural tan.
But it's my eyes and my body that most people notice right off. I'm glad of both.
I got my hair dry, or dry enough, at least, put on a pair of slightly sheer panties and a half T-shirt, and went across the hall with Royal sitting on my shoulder. Colin had left his door open, and he was sitting on the bed wearing only a pair of sweatpants, reading. I saw him look at me— really look— and he didn't even mark his place, just set the book down and stood.
I walked to the door of his balcony, opened it for Royal, accepted a "wing-hug" (wings around the head— it's sweet), pushed the door almost closed after my pseudo dragon friend, knowing he'd not come in until the fireworks were over—
— and I went to light the match.
Colin was standing beside the bed when I went back, and I moved straight into his arms and kissed him. When we parted— took a while, that, with the stronger sensations of his erection pressing against me allowed by us both wearing less and lighter clothing— then I remembered that there were some things that had to be said before this went any farther.
"There's some stuff we should talk about, Colin," I said against his lips. "Before this goes any farther, I have to tell you some things. Okay?"
Colin stepped back and sat on the bed, nodded, not looking angry or impatient.
"First thing… I'm not going to sit here and say I'm in love with you, or anything asinine like that, but… I do have feelings for you," I said. "Probably only gonna get stronger. You may not be able to believe it right now, but I've already figured out that you're an admirable man, and the whole saving my life thing— and god, if you don't know you're a hunk, you're blind and stupid!"
Colin nodded, touched my cheek, touched his own chest, looked at me to see if I got it.
"You… have feelings for me, too?" I said. He nodded seriously, and I blushed and smiled. "Good. Thank you.
"Second thing… I'm bisexual. Not think I am, not maybe, not a phase— I'm bi. And looking at the people around me, the way they live and are happy together… I know that multi-partner relationships can make it, you know? So… if we get closer, if this becomes more than just two people who are attracted to each other and admire each other having sex… well, that's going to be what I want. You and… a girl. Who wants us both. Or… well, more than one girl, if it comes to that.
"Is that… can you deal with that?"
Colin gave me a look of almost comic disbelief, rolled his eyes, and gave me a thumbs up.
"Okay," I said. "Just two more things, then, and we can stop talking and get to the great part.
"I've said I'm bi— and I have had sex with girls. More than one girl, more than one time… I'm down with the girls and good at it. But… you'll be the first guy I've done more than kiss. Which is not to say I'm going to be inhibited— Mom says I'm to smart to be freaked by wanting sex, knowing what I want from sex, and not being ashamed of either— or, you know, scared. Because scared? Not there. At all. Crazy-eager, ready, willing, wanting, yes – scared? Nope.
"Before you get weird— yes. I'm sure. I'm sure I want to have sex, I'm sure I want it to be with you, and I'm sure I want it now.
"Okay?"
Colin looked at me, touched my cheek, and nodded, somberly, but not… he wasn't upset by anything I'd said, he took me seriously, and he understood that this was at least a little more than casual sex for me. He packed all that into a nod and the expression on his face— talented man, him.
"Good, and thank you," I said. Then I swung around, straddled his lap, pressed myself against him, and said, " 'Let the wild rumpus start!' "
He kissed me, and things got wonderful.