Chapter Eleven

Limitless

"That boy clearly likes you but is afraid to take the chance because of me," Mason stated with a dry chuckle.

"And you couldn't outright say you wanted more with him," Akela added, snorting.

"You both got it in spades," Kaleia muttered, hating her stupidity on all fronts. "I listened to my stupid heart when...when I could have just left it be and stayed acquaintances or just friends. I don't know anything about real relationships except everything I was told, what I saw on TV, and you guys." She forced the smile at both grandparents who glanced at each other adoringly before returning it seriously to her.

Akela reached across the table to take a hand into one of her broader, slightly wrinkled ones. "Angel, it's not foolish to want what your heart desires. It IS foolish to assume it's over before anything begins. That boy has issues, it seems, that he fears sharing with you. Like a certain someone I still know." She then raised an eyebrow at her husband who only shook his head and muttered under his breath.

"Akela, darling, please. And Kaleia, if you two went far enough -"

"Grandpa, ew! You wouldn't want to know the details anyway." She waved both her hands before herself as fast as the Flash's speed. "And no, we did nothing to worry about. All we did was...kiss." Her cheeks inflamed under the struggling laughter of Grandma and Melinda, Grandpa's head shaking getting harder as he stifled his snorts. "Then he freaked out and said we couldn't go any further despite agreeing we'd give it a shot, and if things didn't work out, hey, we were grownups, right?"

To her surprise, the answer she got was more than she would have expected, and from the man who raised her in place of her late dad. "Leia, it's much more complicated than that especially if you've never gone through heartbreak before. We had our share as teenagers before we got each other." Mason nodded with his shoulder towards his wife who hummed in agreement. "From where we sit, sounds like you got luckier than us, and your mom and dad." Because they each had sweethearts in high school before each other, too. "It doesn't happen every day that first loves work out, you know that. Michael sounds like he also got lucky with you, and as for him hurting you, I can say with merit he's done it already just now." And there was her grandpa going into protective mode. "I'll forgive him only if he grows the balls to apologize, or at least overcome his insecurities. That one is difficult but doable."

As always, her grandpa was a genius, and coming from the male side of these things. The light bulb lit up in her brain.

"You're both right. It's not over till I know it's over. I'm not gonna let him go without a little bit of fight left." Kaleia devilishly grinned. No crying over spilled milk, after all.

Except what was over was the time to grin, because there was more to be said from her guardians. "Though if I know the type, Mike has skeletons in his closet," Mason added, lacing his fingers into each other as they wrapped around the second cup of tea Akela poured him. "Whatever happened, the scars that transpire as a young person are the ones that linger the hardest and longest. Life's just like that. I'm certain you felt that way when he spurned you." The edge in his tone was softer but still present. She didn't disagree with him, so she nodded mutely. "Boy needs help, and you can't really do anything about that except be there for him."

He and Grandma were both telling her wisely, right as ever, that she couldn't do anything about Michael's demons, because that was his to work through. All she could do was as Mason said: be there for him, be his listening ear, and keep reminding him that he could still move forward. Life also worked that way. She knew exactly what that was like.

"Sweetie," Akela breathed, seeing the emotions in her eyes and across her face, "you get that love and life both hurt, but everything will still be okay?"

Melinda, who had been quiet and letting the family have their moment, finally piped up. "Think we know the answer already, Akela."

~o~

Their relationship went off without hitches from the very first date.

What the hell had Michael been thinking, assuming that he was helping them both when it did more harm than good to all of them?

A week after that first date with Kaleia, his mom and Henry had theirs, and he got to see her in that pure black dress with blinding crystals on the straps and trimming the side slit, ears glowing with black and white diamonds in a checkered pattern, that was solidification. He decided that before then before he saw Clara and Henry leave together, and he quickly closed his eyes to the kiss they shared outside, which he peeked through the window. After he released his heart to Kaleia, all bets were off.

A relationship required commitment, and he wanted nothing more than that. He was happy and content with whatever came his way, could deal with it, and knew he had someone else to do that with him. The fact that Kaleia knew everything about him now and stayed with him - there were no words to describe how happy he was. It was far better than keeping his past from her.

The talk with Mason went way better than expected, but Michael anticipated the threat and promise in one: "I can forgive if you two have a disagreement from time to time, which can always be resolved. But if you so much as lay a hand on my grandbaby, you know what that means." Yup, the vow Michael swore he'd adhere to since entering their lives and them entering his. He vehemently swore on his and Clara's lives.

Being with Kaleia he loved more than being single now.

She went back to school after the summer was over. This was her final and then she'd graduate the following late spring. They didn't have much time for each other except phone calls and lunch break visits whenever they could, but Michael didn't mind at all. Certain wise ones said absence made the heart fonder, and truer words had never been spoken. Things between them were the same as always, though they still had many years ahead of them that they would never have a crystal ball for.

Michael knew to expect regular arguments as long as they never went too far. She did get on him about his bad habit of too much chewing gum, which he'd gotten control over in recent months. Kaleia he wished would cease the bouncing leg she'd do on occasion when sitting down; it was like a leaky faucet or something, a constant source of noise or sense of movement that he wanted fixed but couldn't. Michael knew the gum habit wasn't healthy, but at least it was safer than cigarettes and booze all the time, and he understood if her body had the need to act to feel good while releasing tension. Eventually, they got used to each other's habits.

Halloween was spent at the hospital, and he got to be her date. Jeremy went, too, with Melinda. Mason and Akela remained at home, content to answer trick-or-treaters, and told the kids to have their fun. And it was like Sean Jr. to go with them to see if he could get lucky for a one-night stand again. His plan was to keep at it until Miss Right showed up for him. And meanwhile, he has broken a couple of hearts, unintentionally, in the process. Party was decked out in the cheesiest of decorations from the metallic paper garlands in orange and black to the cutesy spiders, pumpkins, creepy witches in green and purple, cotton cobwebs on the ceilings and over the windows and doorways, and makeshift skulls and candles creatively dripping with waxy red blood. The jack-o-lantern faces of all shapes and sizes consisted of classic faces and newer ones like Michael Myers' mask and knife, Freddy Krueger's claw, the mask of Jason Voorhees, along with graveyards, cats, and far more challenging ones like the Headless Horseman.

And was it a surprise to see more young women dressed in slightly more revealing costumes than they used to be back in the day? That his mother would blush over and Kaleia's grandparents would faint from, that Clara's and William Afton's parents would have scandalized? Melinda's definitely fit into that category: fiery red two-piece, the bustier and harem pants trimmed with lace resembling fire and glittering with ember-like stones. Her earrings and forehead piece were shiny faux gold etched with matching gems, and those things covering the back of her hands going to her middle fingers jingled softly. She looked great right next to Jeremy's Arabian prince in dark blue and gold, but Mike focused solely on the woman to whom he gave his heart.

The beauty appeared as though she'd come down from heaven, all in exquisite ice and ethereal white, the gown cascading like a waterfall and subtly whispering with every graceful walk as well as glowing like the full moon. The near-blinding crystals in tears dripping from garlands all met at the center of her chest and lower...to where her holy womanliness rested, untouched by man as far as he was aware. Michael couldn't stop the heat rushing to his cheeks, but forced his attention to the bracelets gracing her forearms: cuffs with rows of rhinestones opened in the backs to let fringes sway. Kaleia's hair was half up and half down, held in place by a frosty frond thing that might as well have been plucked from a forest in winter.

Goddamn, that night and every other time with her was magical without resorting to the sugary sweetness of children's tales. Sure, it was sweet, but a different kind that couldn't be explained. It was something strong that you could never get enough of.

She was so exquisitely beautiful that she could have had any guy she wanted, yet she laid her eyes on HIM - the one with too much baggage. He never thought he'd be good enough for her, or if her grandfather would consider him the permanent material. Kaleia was the kind of girl a guy could just dream about. She wasn't painfully complex as he was, but enough to see the world as it was while maintaining her girlish wonder. He never wanted her to change who she was.

It was the feeling of her body against his, the sumptuous curves beneath his palms and the costume, that he couldn't hold back anymore. He never knew when it would finally happen between them before they were even married, but Michael knew how to prepare for anything.

"Want to get out of here?" he husked in her ear, feeling her skin shiver. She nodded and gently took his earlobe into her teeth as the answer. He groaned at the feeling and the growing tightness in his pants.

~o~

Michael asked her if she wanted to go somewhere, and she couldn't resist, knowing exactly where that was going. She might have felt it; it was subtle but present.

Now they were away from the hospital, and back at his house of all places. His mother and Henry Emily were out on another date. Kaleia was so happy for them and thought them adorable, but poor Mike! Henry was the real father he should have had, and after everything he, Clara, and Mike had been through...well, you know.

She'd been here a couple of times before, this month and since the previous, so this place was very much like her home with Grandma, Grandpa, and Melinda, and also got to see the faces of the late Evan and Elizabeth Afton in pictures, as well as a single photograph Henry had of his little girl. And the look in his eyes told Kaleia everything she'd known already, despite not being a parent yet: losing a child was the greatest grief there was. Her grandparents losing two children in adulthood was proof of that, and they both would have fallen off the deep end if she hadn't been in their lives.

Now Kaleia was back with her man, and alone with him for the first time in his bedroom, where his mom and uncle figure were out until really late.

Aside from being informed of the rubber Michael abashedly admitted to having once it came to where they were going, Kaleia didn't want to think about what would happen after this, because as far as she was concerned, they were still in the in-love stage of the relationship, and after the first year, they would make forever happen. She waited forever for her precious Michael. It would hurt, might not be too good, but that didn't matter. All that mattered was Mike. She didn't pay attention to everything in the entire room, but she'd seen it before: the distressed wooden mahogany desk next to the bed which also served as the nightstand, bearing some notebooks of his artworks, the speckled ivory ceramic lamp in the corner closest to the bed which was covered by warm neutral and reddish brown hues in geometric patterns; above the head of the bed was a black plaque bearing the words Always Be Humble and Kind. And right in front of the bed on the south wall was a black-framed poster of his favorite punk rock group from when he was a kid that she knew almost nothing about, that he said he still had a t-shirt of and couldn't bear to emotionally part with yet even though his body filled out past it.

They made out hotly and wetly enough, both doing their best to not mix saliva because it was sexy in the mind but disgusting in real life. Too hot...too much of it, and then she wanted him naked and at her mercy. She turned her back to him, getting out of her rhinestone cuffs and the heavenly, bejeweled fabric before pulling her hair free from the fake snowy fern leaves. Behind her, the sound of Mike's godly pirate costume hit the floor - the black vest and white shirt, brown laced trousers, and his adorable black bandana, but was it in that order? The lightest audio had to be the last one. Once Kaleia's breasts, butt, subtly bushy womanhood, and every other inch of skin were revealed, she whirled around, curls swishing over one shoulder, and there was her beloved as she remembered then.

She made damned sure she was gonna savor and cherish him, then receive the same in return.

She marched right over and dropped to her knees in front of his manhood, surprised to see he'd trimmed the pubes into a smaller amount than she had hers. But it was not a good time to laugh. She took him in hand, having enough knowledg of the technicalities, and it already was serving well. Both of them were young and had healthy libidos, but yet to act on them because of how serious an act this was, and there were consequences for being irresponsible. She wrapped her fingers around the taut length and its bulging veins, thumb briefly pressing the moistening slit of the mushroomed head. Above her, Michael sucked in a breath and moaned a little before uttering, "Please."

"Please, what?" Kaleia teased, inhaling the strong musk and sighing at the subtle hint of what was left of a shaving cream he used. Guys usually don't do this to themselves, unlike women.

Her tongue lapped over the tip, then swirled around like a garland around a pillar. This elicited the pleasure through his body to the point his body trembled, knees wobbling but not giving out. His fingers came to wind through her hair, massaging her scalp and then clenching it without painfully pulling. This went on for a little bit before he grunted. "Stop, Kaleia. I don't want to come yet." Blood harshly rushed to her cheeks at the lewd yet loving phrase. "Not without you."

Not without being in her, he meant. Giggling, she rose and took his hand into hers, turning in the direction of the bed they had to themselves. His bed, where they would lose their virginities.

The covers were halfway down so she could lie first, not minding at all. Her nipples were hard and stinging a little by now, aching for his lips and fingers. If only a perfect world existed where they could be trapped in this moment forever like amber. Outstretching her arms, she beckoned him. "Come here, you." Mike's lips stretched into a sly leer without bordering on creepy. He climbed on top of her, only for Kaleia to reverse the position and latch her thighs around his waist. His manhood firmly pushed against the plush opening between her legs. Her hair fell over to frame her face, some rogue strings in her eyes and mouth; she pushed it behind her. And like a snake in heat, she threw herself back over him to capture his lips passionately with hers, with an intensity she never knew she had in her entire twenty-one years of life. She was so on fire that she -

"Son of a bitch, you know how much I need you in me?" she hissed, rubbing her itching, throbbing, and softly gushing Venus flytrap against his tense length.

Michael huffed, his chest and cheeks a matching rose. "Enough to remember I need to get that condom," he muttered, disappointed with her but sharing the necessity. So she got off him and let him stand, mouth watering at the pretty, lithe muscles and his ass which softly bounced with his walk towards his fallen costume trousers, which was where his wallet was. And in less than a couple minutes, he took the round thing out of its wrapper and started to fasten it around himself. "Had help from Jeremy and Junior together," he admitted, flustered but grateful.

Kaleia laughed. "I bet. Oh, come here and get your sexy ass in." She flew back onto the mattress, hair all over the pillow, back flat, and legs wide enough without pulling the muscles at the apex since she wasn't that acrobatic. His eyes darkened at the sight, and he was back in a flash. Took a few minutes, painfully slow, but her slick made it easier for the rubbery tip to find its way inside. She cried out at the pinching sensation that burned her a little. "Oh, Mike, just like that," she whispered, putting her hands on his shoulders and pulling him down while half-sitting up, moaning at the thrilling vibrations that replaced the little agony. "God, you feel so good. I thought it wouldn't be the first time, but it's everything."

"What did you imagine?" he asked with an awed expression.

"Mmm..." Ugh, she wanted him to move, but she could prolong it while indulging him with her fantasies. "I want your lips and tongue on my neck and breasts - oooh, yeah!" He'd bowed his head and lavished her right breast, doing just that with a suction like a newborn baby. Exactly as she wanted.

"What else, darling?"

"Just move! Make me drunk for more and remember it always, even when we get old and gray with grandbabies of our own...!"

Oh, no, did she just say that out loud? She wanted what Akela and Mason had, but maybe with just one or two kids, depending on what they could afford, except Michael didn't need to know right now. Only it was now out in the heat of the moment and seemed right with everything else. "...I want that, too, someday," he breathed, taking her by surprise, easing the worries, and granting her wish. Wave after wave, pump after pump, her legs locked at the ankles against both sides of his ass, he deliciously brought them to the brink after making sure she'd climaxed and not just him. His sweet thoughtfulness brought a couple of pinpricks to the corners of her eyes, if not enough to cry a flood.

If only she could spend the night with him, but she had to get home soon, and boy, was she gonna sleep well tonight after this. And she was probably gonna finger herself to his humorous words: "I never thought being turned on could be so...shit, I forgot what I was going to say." He buried his face into her shoulder crook, damning himself for saying such a stupid thing, but she was thinking the same thing. Lovingly, Kaleia caressed his moist shoulders, then the back of his neck, and his damp hair. She was just as hot and thirsty as he was.

"How about this: so turned on we might pick up round two solo at bedtime?"

This was the greatest night of her life, and she had a damned good feeling about tomorrow and every day after.

~o~

Good God, she felt like she was attending what should have been her boy's big day, but that hadn't been his fault he could never get into a prestigious college. No, he was far more successful than his father ever would have been.

The difference: Mikey had everything going for him, and right now, he was here on the big day his girlfriend and her best friend had waited long enough for. So were the Kais, Jeremy, both Sean O'Briens, and Henry and herself. The girls were graduating from nursing school and about to start real-world work. Clara was confident in Kaleia and Melinda Warner. Hell, she got in her best dress for this day, in forest green satin in a similar style to a Chinese long gown, gathering at the sides, and printed all over with pristine white snowdrops and daisies, hair wrapped in place atop her head by a matching silk band beaded with the flower patterns. Akela Kai did the same thing as she: a knee-length slip underneath a sheer caftan of champagne with an abundance of threaded sparklers and floral motifs, tight bun glinting and gleaming with gold flora. Her husband was in a casual tan suit and pants with a pressed white shirt and no tie, on one of those rare occasions for Mason. It was a comedy show that Sean Sr. and Jr. wore matching t-shirts bearing bold prints of GO GET 'EM, KALEIA! surrounded by a rainbow of fireworks and ripped jeans, the cool trend.

The one who gave the valedictorian speech was Melinda, though both she and Kaleia made it in the top percentage of their class, which was a hell of an accomplishment itself.

Photos were taken of the graduates with their families and friends for the cherished memories of generations to come. Clara watched Mason and Akela with their granddaughter, Kaleia and Melinda together, and finally, the four of them gathered for the flashes to be framed in the memory book.

And finally, there was a luau gathering for the lot of them back at the Kai house.

Just how often was an opportunity like this given to anyone if they couldn't go to Hawaii? Well, Kaleia's family did this once every summer, bringing to life the Pacific Island vibrancy. She had only been there once or twice in childhood before her parents died, so doing it on a smaller scale here was better than nothing and worth everything. It was still a dream...

"Nothing to spoil a good experience," Henry told her heartily, sharing a paper plate with portions of the greatest dishes reflecting the multiple cultures stemming from separated roots before they converged into modern Hawaiian: shredded pork, coconut pudding known as haupia, and some of that salmon, tomato, and onion thing. "Nothing but a good old time and celebrating, good food and drink, family and friends - and a good woman in my arms later. A woman as relentless as she is beautiful and hearty." He winked at her, making her laugh breathlessly and swat him on the chest with the back of her hand. But she looked forward to that alone time later.

Yes, women back then were less important, no longer a surprise in other countries; in Hawaii and Polynesia, they were separated from the men at mealtime, in both royalty and peasantry. And what the hell that they couldn't eat certain foods like bananas, pork, and a kind of fish?! All part of the kapu, which is all a bit much. Separation always did more harm than good, as history proved socially.

They had to thank one great king for the immense change in the early nineteenth century. It gave way to what was now known as the luau.

The setup was grandiose, natural and fresh, sweet-smelling with the roaring firepit and grill, several tikis leading from the front of the house to the area of the party, and the picnic table festooned with exquisite florae for the girls' exiting of one stage of their life only to enter a new one: hibiscus of solid ruby red glowing vividly with the yellow stamens popping out like fire sparks, moonlit white without a colored core, a dazzling beauty with the yellow going to orange, red, a little pink and red with streaks of white - the hues of a sunset or sunrise - another a passionate pastel pink delicately seduced at the heart with wine red, finished with lush ferns and dark blue orchids. No one was at the direct head and end of the table, which meant Mason was to the left, joined by Sean Sr. and Jr., Michael and Kaleia, and left Akela to the other side, Clara and Henry, and Melinda and Jeremy. But while the food was consumed, the matriarch herself stood up and clapped her hands for attention.

"Not only do we throw these parties for community and celebrations, but we commune with the gods and spirits to offer them their share of the feast. Back in our native islands, we have the saying that what you take from the island will remain with you positively. Girls?"

She winked at both Kaleia and Melinda who wasted no time popping up and out of their seats to stand in front of all of them. The latter free-spiritedly flounced in a gray dress with the bodice and straps bearing a tapestry of light blue, buttery yellow, and red flowers, the skirt flowing with paisley green, brown, and gold; her curls were pulled in a bun atop her head and held in place by a scrunchie shimmering with faux mother-of-pearl in gray and ivory, showing off the dangling opals ringed with garnets, blue topaz, citrines, peridots, and amethysts, while her neck and collarbones were honored with the clear gem shaped like an obelisk. The granddaughter of the Pacific Islands herself was a more mysterious enchantment in a tank and leggings of all-over blue and purple blossoms, the right shoulder strap gathered with a brooch dazzled with baguettes to form wheat, held in place by a butterfly placed with rounds and a single freshwater pearl; the look was completed with earrings inspired by the legendary, breathtaking beauty of Grace Kelly, Princess of Monaco, in the form of ribbon-like gold surrounded delicate white gems and a trio of glamorous white pearls glowing against wavy locks with a loose braid behind her head, set with a bomb of golden swirls and a few pearls.

But most importantly, there was the Christmas gift her son gave the girl - the golden face of an accurately depicted fox just above the valley of Kaleia's breasts, one of a pair, bringing the intriguing, sensual creature of the forest to life in the form of its entire head to proportion. And a silver one, so that she can have every day with everything she has. That's my boy.

The dance the girls gave them was pulsating, graceful, and blood-pumping. Too bad there were no fire dancers; that would have completed the experience. The hand and wrist waving, hip circling and swaying...the sun setting behind them in every direction...

It was transcendently mystical.

~o~

Later that year, by Christmas time, a gift from a young man to his beloved would see the light of day once again.

The lover's knot - a perfect way to symbolize steadfast and sincere love, unbreakable and everlasting. It was said to have first been discovered by sailors, having tied braided rope into a knot for their lover before going off to the treacherous seas. This ring of very rare gold in the craftsmanship of the sailor's heart and soul was first bestowed from a young genius to the woman he once loved before greed, death, and despair consumed them and tore them apart.

Now it was on the finger of their son's new bride-to-be. Not only was it a precious heirloom ready for a new generation unattached to the past, but the son recalled his love of an old animatronic fox despite the tragedy and trauma of his past.

Tomorrow is another day.

Melinda's Halloween costume is based on Firefly-Path's Slave Jasmine Outfit on Deviantart, Kaleia's the Crystal Web Gown (same designer, same website).

More goodness from the Midnight Velvet site, including the "Humble and Kind" Plaque, and as for the Ramones poster: I know virtually nothing about them except the research I've done. It also came from Michael wearing their t-shirt in Jake Ryan Southgate's "First Night as Freddy" series on YouTube, and MAY have also been mentioned in a fanfic I read once only to completely forget about except for that tiny lil detail. Chose not to mention it by name here. ;)

My aunt, boyfriend and I went to Hawaii a year and a half ago, and it was my second time as well as their first. :D It was a great week, and in the middle of the week (Wednesday), we experienced our very first luau. It was a majestic experience we'd love to do again if given the opportunity. The written context here comes from not only my memories but the mauiluau . com article "What is a luau? We share history, cuisine, Dance, Etiquette & Culture". :3

The Love Knot Ring from Stauer - Clara's old wedding ring.

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