Chapter 120: Heart of the Hive.
"Are you sure this stuff will work?" Varrel asked buzzing his wings lightly to add emphasis to his concern as he looked at the armour that was sat upon the dummy before him.
"If I wasn't I wouldn't even let you see it let alone wear it, do you think I'm about to take the risk of losing my heart right after he's taught me how to love?" Eve said and varrel turned to look at her buzzing his wings slightly in regret.
Eve's expression softened as she saw his antenna droop, it was obvious to her that he hadn't intended to offend her with his words, he was merely expressing concerns that was all.
Eve stepped up to him and slipped her arms around his torso and relished the feeling of his smooth chitin armour that covered his smooth waxy skin.
She slipped his hands under his wing joints and very gently caressed them making them buzz lightly though this time out of pleasure rather than concern.
"I have spent every day on this earth wondering why I was different, wondering why I was never able to look at boys the way every other girl I knew did, but now I know why, I was waiting for a male far more handsome than any human I could ever imagine to buzz his way into my life and to sweep me off my feet before plunging his stinger into my heart like cupid's arrow, well consider me love stung buzzy boy and now I got you in my web I ain't never letting you go and I'll be fucking damned if I ever let anyone hurt you," she said softly as she rested her head against his chest.
Varrel seemed to freeze for a moment before he stepped fully forward into her and wrapped all four of his long but strong arms around her slender frame.
She felt his hands fanning out on her back and it felt like being touched by two people at once, two of them when upp while two went down, two to the back of her shoulders and two to her hips.
Eve knew that no matter what her happy place would now always be in these arms with these hands upon her, no matter what the future held or where they ended up as long as she had Varrel at her side she would be happy.
Suddenly she felt his lower hands moving a little further south from her hips and she felt her breath catch in her chest in a hitch as his inquisitive fingers gently gripped a buttock in each hand.
Eve looked up at Varrel who simply smiled at her with a little embarrassment on his handsome and exotic face.
"So it is as soft as I imagined it to be," he said softly with that note of embarrassment bleeding into his voice.
Eve chuckled softly and gave him a sly grin along with a raised eyebrow that prompted him to continue talking, though she noted he didn't let go or take his hands off her rear as he did.
"Well I was err wondering how a human rear differed from ours given your abdomen is kinda different you know with not having a stinger or venom glands," he said rambling his way through his explanation.
Eve found his innocent curiosity and subsequent embarrassment most endearing indeed, he was such a cute one when he was flustered.
"You don't need to justify wanting to grab a handful of my bum you know Varrel," she said in a soft voice as she pushed her rear end out a little to fill both of his lower hands and she saw his antennae twitch which was accompanied by a slightly alarmed buzz of his wings, which felt wonderful to her as she was still stroking his wing joints as he did it.
"I-I don't?" he asked in a soft voice.
"I love you Varrel, I have made my choice in male and I have chosen you, so now as far as I am concerned I belong to you and you to me, that means all of me belongs to you, just as all of you belongs to me, so if you want to touch me then you go right ahead and put all of those beautiful hands on me because I can tell you right now I am not going to keep mine to myself handsome one," Eve said taking one of his upper hands in on of hers and drawing it to her mouth to kiss each of his fingers one after the other.
"How is it this easy to fall in love with someone so different to me?" Varrel said in a voice that was barely above a whisper but carried more weight in the words than an atomic bomb.
"I know it feels crazy doesn't it?" Eve said looking up at her handsome hybrid man.
"After what happened to my hive and then to me and my sister, I was almost convinced that all humans are evil, that there was no compassion or love in any of you, that all you cared about was what you could take, but after meeting Seven and all of you I can't believe how wrong I was and I feel so bad about it," varrel said giving a dismayed buzz of his wings.
"Honestly I don't blame you a single bit for feeling like that Varrel, after what you went through anyone would feel like that if not worse, hell I'm actually surprised that when you and your sister broke free that you didn't wind up going on a murderous rampage or something, it's actually a testament to who you are as people and your strength that you are both still sane and good people," Eve said reaching up to stroke the side of his smooth face and relishing the feel of his little mandibles twitching under her fingers as he kissed them.
"Thank you Eve you have no idea how much that means to me," he said.
"When I first met Seven and his people I didn't know what the hell to think, here was this team of people who looked completely crazy but at the same time more powerful than anyone I had ever seen, then I found out about the various relationships they had going on among their numbers like Visa and Seven, or Chris and Vess, I thought to myself how in the name of hell could a human look at a Claw let alone be with one, it made me think of the times that Thundertail had made some rather clumsy and albeit rather innocent passes at me and it got me thinking, that maybe there was a lot more to this than met the eye and I started to watch them all closely but that's when I realised something, no there really is no more to it than two people who fell in love despite their differences, all that mattered to them was that they were happy together, they wanted nothing more from one another than their company, their love and their trust, simple," Eve said.
"And now you want that for yourself?" Varrel said and Eve gave him a wide and warm grin.
"You tell me you are the one with two of your hands currently cupping my very human bum still," she said and Varrel chuckled making his mandibles twitch.
"It's a very nice bum," he said giving it a squeeze that sent a flurry of little tingles chasing one another up through Eve's body.
"Why thank you, handsome sir, I'll remind you you said that when you see it for the first time without my pants making it look better than it really is," she said teasingly.
"I doubt any pants in the world could make it look better than your real flesh could," varrel replied and Eve barked a laugh but gave him a warm smile before stretching up onto her tip toes so she could kiss him, through thankfully those extra hands of his helped support her weight.
"I guess you'll have to find out now won't you?" she said giving him a playful wink though she found herself wondering if the human gesture would be lost on him given that he didn't exactly have eyelids.
"God I hope my sister can find someone like you for herself you know," Varrel breathed as he leaned down and gently ran his antenne over her seemingly tasting the pheromones that were obviously pumping out of her every pore, she had never felt as aroused in her life as she did right now in his arms, it was almost alarming how natural this actually felt to do.
"Oh I'm sure she will, she's a good-looking girl and hanging around with Seven and his people seems to bring out those who have the most open of minds, so if she sticks with him I'm sure sooner or later a handsome human boy with a taste for a strong-willed buzzy girl with a real sting in the tail will pop up somewhere along the road, though and please don't take this the wrong way, I do hope one with a taste for strong Gatorclaw girls shows up first or poor Thundertail might just have a meltdown," she said causing Varrel to bark a laugh and buzz his wings in time with his laughter.
"Yeah she really is an excitable one isn't she?" he said.
"Understatement of the century right there, that's kinda like saying an atomic explosion is somewhat toasty, though honestly, I do hope that poor girl finds someone worthy of her, she really is such a kind gentle soul and she deserves someone to make her happy and to take care of her," Eve said.
"I'm sure there will be someone for her somewhere I mean look out there, both Visa and Vess have their human and now I have mine so why not her?" he said and Eve rested her head against Varrel's chest as they looked out of the window together at the courtyard below where everyone was hard at work.
"Yeah you're right Varrel," she sighed happily and that's when a decision clicked into place in her mind, she was going to finish Varrel's armour and then she was going to get him to model it for her, then she was going to have even more fun taking it back off him again.
"Come on buzzy boy let's try that armour on you shall we?" Eve said turning and taking his hands so she could lead him across the room back to the dummy.
Varrel laughed and twitched his mandibles, "Has that become my official name now?" he asked and she gave him a grin.
"Only because it accurately describes how you make my insides feel when I look at you, you make my entire nervous system buzz with joy and excitement," she said as she lifted the chest piece off the dummy and turned to face him.
"Suddenly it doesn't seem so bad, though I do believe that I'm going to have to come up with one for you now, only fair after all," he said as she stepped up and began to help him put the chest piece on.
The armour was designed not only to be lightweight and strong but also streamlined so that they would have no problems with drag causing problems with their flight mechanics.
Though in its design Eve had made careful calculations in order to ensure that not only would the armour deflect any incoming projectiles but would be comfortable to wear which was a tricky set of calculations, to say the least, it really had been a balancing act to get all the factors to even themselves out.
But as she clipped the final piece onto him which happened to be the helmet Eve stepped back and admired her handiwork.
Varrel looked down at himself noe encased in the metal and Kevlar and he flexed both his legs and his arms to test the limits of his movement within the suit.
"How's it feel?" Eve asked.
"Surprisingly light and flexible, if I didn't have this helmet covering my head I'd actually have trouble telling that I'm wearing it," Varrel said with genuine surprise in his voice.
"Looking good bro, it suits you," a voice said from the doorway and they both turned to see Vizzy standing there leaning against the frame while she admired Eve's handiwork now being modelled by her brother.
"You really think?" Varrel asked glancing over his shoulder and giving his abdomen an experimental waggle while also extending his stinger.
"I'm actually impressed with the results, I didn't think it was gonna look this good if I'm honest," Vizzy said stepping fully into the room and circling around her brother to examine him closely.
"I'm so pleased you think so, yours is ready too if you wish to try it on Vizzy," Eve said gesturing to the second dummy which had a slightly smaller suit on it.
"Seriously!? Wow, you guys really do work fast," Vizzu said snapping her attention to the second dummy and heading over to it to examine her own suit.
"I'll give you a hand to put it on," Eve said stepping up and lifting the chest piece down.
Vizzy simply nodded her thanks and then stood still while Eve lifted the various pieces up for her to put on and pretty soon she and her brother were both encased in the protective armour.
"I think a test flight is in order, if we can't fly while wearing it then it's basically worthless," Vizzy said looking at her brother who nodded his head in agreement.
"Think we should ask Seven if he wasn't to tag along in case something goes wrong?" Varrel asked and Vizzy looked thoughtful for a moment before nodding her head.
"Probably for the best he's already proved he can out fly the pair of us while carrying multiple Claws around anyway," Vizzu said grabbing her brother's hand and leading him towards the door but not before Varrel grabbed hold of Eve's hand and pulled her along too much to her surprise.
"Hey, Seven fancy taking a flight with us?" Vizzy yelled across the yard and Seven's head popped up from the forge at the tool station.
"Did someone say flight?" he asked walking over and wiping his brow as he did, he was now stripped to his waist as he'd been working hard at the forge and despite not having to touch the molten metal or the crucibles he was still in close proximity to all the heat, so he had stripped off to help him cool off, not that Visa seemed to be complaining by the way she almost had her tongue looped through horns to prevent her from tripping over it and she wasn't the only one by the way Thundertail was laid 'basking' nearby.
"yeah we're testing out the new armour and we need to take a test flight to make sure it fits for purpose and we were wondering if you wanted to tag along as backup in case something goes wrong and we can't get back," Vizzy said and Eve instantly noticed the way she was rather subtly waving her antennae in Seven's direction trying to make it look like the wind was doing it but Eve knew better, she was tasting his pheromones in the air around him.
To the uninitiated her insectoid body language would be hard to read and while Eve herself was no expert she had managed to cobble both her own experiences with Varrel and her prior knowledge together to help her read it better.
The result was she was now able to understand the basics of their complex body language and it truly did appear that Vizzy had a taste for humans like her brother did, though this particular human was definitely not the one to go chasing after if one liked their limbs still attached to the outside of their body and not cut free and rather unceremoniously shoved into the hole one hoped he would fill with a certain part of him, thanks to a rather jealous and overprotective Claw wife not a million miles away.
"Sure I could go for a flight, bloody hot work that forge and I could do with a break, up for a flight my heart?" Seven said turning to Visa who looked like she might have to tie her tongue into a bow atop her head any moment.
"With you, always my male," she replied heading over to join him.
"Mind if Eve tags along as well I'd like her to see the fruits of her labour and if something needs turning or adjusting she'd be the best to handle it given she designed it," Varrel said quickly stepping up and putting one of his upper arms around her slender shoulders and pulling her close.
"But of course, wouldn't dream of leaving her behind and besides it's gonna be damn hard for her to keep staring at your armoured rear through a set of binoculars from the ground now isn't it?" Seven said teasingly as he shot a grin at Eve who felt the heat of a blush rise in her cheeks.
"True but I'm not the one who looks like I'm gonna have to tie my own tongue around my horns if it gets any lower now am I?" Eve shot back playfully while shooting a knowing glance at Visa who simply huffed.
"A proud Alpha Claw is never ashamed of her honest passions for her male!" she protested and Seven laughed while grinning at his scaley wife.
"Yeah I might have opted to wear a little less if hadn't been for me having to stop her from licking my shadow," he said teasingly.
"It would not be your shadow I would be licking it would be your flesh and if I am not mistaken it is you who is the one who likes to lick things is it not my male?" Visa shot back giving him a sly and fang-filled grin which simply made Seven laugh even harder.
"Not gonna deny that but who can blame me when my girl looks this tasty all the time?" he said making the others laugh well all except for Vizzy who just looked confused.
"Umm am I missing something here?" she asked and Visa grinned at her before beckoning her over.
The armoured Cazador girl walked over while glancing at all of them in confusion, then Visa leaned down cupped her massive hand at the side of her head and whispered into what would have been her ear if she were a human, but given she was a Cazador her entire body was basically a giant ear thanks to them being able to detect even slight vibrations through their carapace.
Vizzy's mandibles dropped open and her antenna shot bolt upright in surprise and possibly alarm.
"Humans do that!!?" she exclaimed and Visa nodded.
"Mine does and let me tell you he is damn good at it," she said proudly.
"Mine too," Vess called from her seat at a large table nearby where she was working on bending components into place for the Claw armour with her massive hands obviously having guessed what they were talking about.
"Alright it's settled first chance we get you are finding me one of your kind, I want me some of that!" Vizzy exclaimed making them all laugh.
"Me's first!! Is queue buzzy girl and you's is at back of it!" Thundertail called from her basking spot which strangely enough seemed to have rotated so she was still facing Seven though none of them had seen her move despite her size.
Seven laughed and shot Vizzy a grin, "You heard the lady Vizzy better take a number I guess," he said with a shrug.
"Alright let's get into the air shall we?" Varrel said seemingly growing embarrassed by the open and rather sexual nature of the conversation, though to Eve despite her own embarrassment these people were actually a breath of fresh air, not only did they take their love very seriously they actually openly revelled in it, their pride in one another was obvious for all to see.
She glanced up at varrel and made herself a silent promise, she too would be this proud of her love for this wonderful man, she would stand proudly at his side and let the entire world know who she belonged to and that she was damn proud to do so, starting right this fucking second.
So without any hesitation, she stepped up and slipped herself under his right arm slipping one around her waist and the other around her shoulders while slipping her own around his slender waist.
Seven glanced at her and so did Visa and she saw both the nods of approval they gave, but it was Visa who gave it voice, "Never be ashamed to love openly Eve, this right here is your man, let the whole world know it and that you will fight tooth and claw for him when the world sees it they will have no choice but to accept it, those who don't are worthy of your time or his," she said.
Eve felt her face light up and she nodded before she looked up at Varrel, "You got that right Visa, there aren't words strong enough to adequately express how I feel or what he means to me so instead I'll let my actions speak for me," she said.
"Well said now let us fly before I am forced to carry off my own half-naked human for some very well-deserved Claw love, he knows the consequences of teasing his claw only too well," Visa purred looking at Seven.
Seven slipped his arms back into his top and covered himself up much to Visa's disappointment but no sooner he was done than he lifted his hands to his sides.
Both Visa and Eve levitated into the air and floated to his sides to be contained inside the invisible bubble he made, "Shall we?" he said looking down at Vizzy and Varrel.
"Let's go!" Vizzy yelled buzzing her wings and lifting off into the air swiftly followed by her brother and all of them took to the skies.
The group spent the next hour and a half putting the pair through their paces with a series of aerial challenges that included high-speed and low-speed maneuvres, banking tests, carry tests and airborne weapons tests.
While the twins flew ahead Seven flew behind them monitoring them closely, while he did not intervene Eve knew that he was ready to do so at the first sign of trouble, but thankfully to her delight his intervention was not needed at all, the armour did its job perfectly.
Eventually, they all landed back in the courtyard and noticed that all of the Gatorclaws seemed to have stopped work and were all sitting on the grass with Thundertail watching their little impromptu airshow, they even clapped when they landed.
"Seems that armour has passed the flying test with flying colours," Timothy said walking up to them with a large grin while laughing at his own pun.
"Ugghh really?" Shauna said from his side.
"What?" he replied shooting her a grin.
"It's just as well you are handsome because your puns are terrible," she shot back and Timothy's grin grew even wider.
"How did the armour feel?" Eve asked approaching the twins.
"Excellent, honestly while I knew it was there I often found myself forgetting it was," Vizzy said and her brother nodded his agreement.
"Perfect, well then I do believe we are ready on the flight crew side of things," Seven said.
"Alright umm, Seven if you can help Vizzy out of hers I umm just have to do some minor umm calibrations to Varrel's," Eve said grabbing the stunned Cazador's hand and beginning to pull him back towards the tree house.
"You could just say you are going to ravish him you know," Visa said with a grin as she watched the rapidly retreating pair.
"I never said his armour was going to be on him when I adjust it," Eve called back over her shoulder and with that the pair vanished into the tree.
Eve practically dragged Varrel up to her quarters within the tree, her quarters were off the main building towards the rear and were easy to miss if you didn't know they were there, it had once been an old office that when she moved in she had converted into her personal living space and now served as home.
No sooner had Eve pulled the confused-looking hybrid boy inside than she locked the door behind them and spun Varrel around on the spot pressing herself into his four arms and grabbing the sides of his face to lock him in a deep and passionate kiss.
When they broke for air Varrel looked around the room waving his cute antennae as he did, "Is this your private chamber within this hive?" he asked softly and Eve chuckled.
"Yes and you are the first male to ever see it," she said gently unbuckling the helmet's chin strap so she could remove it and kiss him without having to lift the face plate up all the time.
"It smells of you, it's nice in here," he said as he looked around waving his antennae as if trying to capture every single scent molecule that had escaped her body and attached itself to the various surfaces.
Suddenly Varrel seemed to truly comprehend what her intentions towards him suddenly were in this room and he buzzed his wings softly and turned back to face her.
"A-Are you truly going to ravish me?" he asked in a soft voice that she couldn't quite tell was filled with either apprehension or excitement.
"I wish to make love to you if that's what you are asking my sweet buzzy boy, but to ravish someone indicates that they do not have a choice about what is happening to them and I would never ever do that to you, Visa was merely joking when she used that word as it gets thrown around in this group a lot but I know these people, they would never take what is not offered to them freely and consensually, that goes for me too, I would never hurt or force you Varrel, I love you and I want to make you as happy as I can," she said gently planting a series of kisses around his mandibles.
This seemed to ease the tension out of him and he visibly relaxed, it was obvious to her now that Varrel had lived a very sheltered life up until the disaster that had destroyed his hive in the form of the raiders.
It was also obvious that he had absolutely zero experience in matters of the heart or in passion, not that that mattered to her as it wasn't like she was awash with experience herself, what with still being a virgin and all.
She had experienced romance before but it had really gone no further than some heavy petting and deep kissing, she had wanted to take things slowly and him not so much, so she had stepped back to see how he would react and when he realised that she wasn't simply going to give it up to him he vanished faster than a fart in a hurricane.
But here and now with this handsome man, it was very different, but there was also a not of similarity, the roles were kinda reversed in that she was now the aggressive one but she also had the self-awareness to recognise that and to act upon it, the last thing she ever wanted was her sweet male to feel pressured or uncomfortable.
"We can go as slowly as you like Varrel, no pressure my beautiful buzzy boy, if you are at all uncomfortable just say so and I'll stop immediately ok?" she said softly while planting a series of kisses on his smooth jawline.
"O-Ok," he said nervously in a voice that made her flare with desire, so he was just so adorable when he was vulnerable like this, he was such a strong and dangerous being in his own right but for him to be hourly disarmed by something as simple as desire was actually rather intoxicating.
Slowly she began to remove his new armour piece by piece by piece until it was all laid out neatly on the floor by the door in a line along the wall.
When she turned back around Varrel was standing before her bed with all four of his hands clasped before him as he looked around nervously, she decided now was time to give this handsome man the boost of confidence he measuredly needed.
"Well now that I've unwrapped my wonderful gift I do believe it's time for you to unwrap yours, my sweet buzzy boy," she said softly as she slowly stepped up to him and took two of his four hands and placed them upon her stomach to indicate the buttons of her blouse.
Varrel's wings buzzed and this time it was obviously nervous excitement but that didn't stop his fingers from going to work.
Slowly his upper hands made their way up the row of buttons from her stomach to her neckline, while his lower hands also made their way onto her body, smoothing their way over her hips and gently pulling her closer as he worked.
Eve simply couldn't resist reaching up and very gently kissing his little mandibles as they twitched and flexed, lining his jaw with kisses again until she managed to slip her face in between them to press her lips to his.
This time she felt his long thin tongue shoot out and dart its way into her mouth in order to explore her, the taste of his sweet saliva making her head fuzz and crackle with want and pure desire.
So foggy was her head that she didn't even realise how busy or dexterous her handsome buzzy boy was until she broke the kiss and found herself standing there in just her underwear, with her coat and blouse gone while her pants were now bunched around her ankles.
"Sneak, distracting your girl with a sublime kiss so you can get her naked, tut tut," she said playfully as she stepped out of her pants and pressed forwards into him again.
"You are truly sublime Eve, I never actually imagined a human could be beautiful, but you are nothing short of radiant," Varrel said in a breathless-sounding voice.
"Flattery will get you everywhere my handsome hybrid, but it seems that we are still a little uneven here, what say we fix that hmm?" she said gently thumbing the waistband of her panties to emphasize her point.
Varrel wasted no time at all obliging her, his upper hands lid around her back while his lower ones slid over her hips, and both sets got to work on her underwear simultaneously.
Literally, three seconds later Eve was standing before him as naked as the day she was born while he stepped back to admire her, all while still clutching her underwear in both sets of hands.
His antenna looked like they were about to pop off his head they were vibrating and waving about too much, it was like they were trying desperately to catch every single scent molecule that broke free of her body and drifted into the air.
"By the ethereal hive, I didn't imagine you could get even more beautiful," Varrel breathed as his mandibles twitched and his long thin tongue darted out to lick at them.
That's when Eve noticed that between his legs a small piece of his armour plating had slid itself to the side exposing what appeared to be a small slit in his skin, it didn't take her long to figure out that's where his manhood was hiding and she smiled to herself, it was time to truly even the odds up.
With desire crackling through her like a wildfire burning out of control, Eve stepped forwards and very gently pushed Varrel backwards until he fell back onto her bed with a sharp buzz of his wings as an alarm cry at the fall.
But Eve knew her mattress was as soft and springy as a bag stuffed to the gills with the softest feathers, it was also very springy.
A point that was proven by the bounce that Avrrel did as his weight hit it and he flopped down on his back as he came down from said bounce.
She smiled down at him as she moved onto her hands and knees crawling on all fours up the bed towards him.
"I never imagined in my wildest dreams that I would have a man as exotic and handsome as you in my bed, but here you are, you buzzed your way into my life and my heart and I have waited a lifetime to find you, tonight I am going to make up for all those lost years and all that love and want that I have bottled up over that time is going to be yours for the taking my handsome man," she purred hoping to god that it came off as sultry and not just plain creepy.
But by the look of pure breathless want etched onto Varrel's handsome face, she got a distinct feeling that it was working beautifully, she could see his chest cavity rising and falling as he drew rapid breaths though she knew that unlike humans he didn't have lungs, more microscopic spricales all over his skin to allow him to breathe.
"You are a goddess made flesh and blood Eve, how am I so lucky that I caught the eye of a goddess?" Varrel exclaimed as she moved herself atop him and gently straddled his hips.
"I'm the lucky one Varrel, of all the humans out there you chose me, as far as we know there are only two of your kind left in the entire world and I get to love one of them with all of my heart, body and soul, so I'm the lucky one Varrel and tonight I'm going to prove it," she said leaning down and softly kissing his chest plates.
To her delight Varrel made a gasping noise, in so doing proving to her that his carapace was indeed sensitive like his skin was, oh she was going to have such fun tonight, it was going to be part scientific study part love-making session.
She was going to explore him and mentally document every single beautiful difference while relishing every single sweet similarity between the pair of them, all while drowning her beautiful male in as much love as her inexperienced body and heart could give.
Then it was her turn to gasp as she felt his four hands lid up onto her skin leaving hot tingling trails in their wake, his lower ones headed over her hips and onto her rear helping themselves to generous handfuls of her flesh.
While his two upper ones ran themselves up over her tummy right up onto her chest cupping each of her small breasts within each of them.
The result was an explosion of pleasurable tingles that fired from both ends of her body at once and collided in her core like two particles of pure joys smashing together to make a nuclear explosion of pleasure.
"You're not the only one who is going to show off their heart tonight my beautiful goddess, tonight I will show you the heart of the hive and I will prove to you and to all that my queen was right when she said that we and humans are stronger together, tonight we will show the universe the truth of her words," he said and with that Eve simply couldn't take it anymore, she pounced on him.