Aberrant: 2011 - Desired Constellation (Mature Content) [COMPLETE]

[Libertyne]

Missoula, Montana - 04/13/2009 - 12:32 AM

"I really need to not be alone right now."

Brittany swiveled away from the computer set up in her family's kitchen and shuddered for warmth. Her father and mother had gone to bed, and as per usual, she was up late, checking her email and chatting on the forum she frequented. The last few days had been hard, and as frustrating as it sometimes was, chatting with her nova friends online was one of the few things that gave her genuine comfort and a sense of being. Just that feeling of connecting with other people like her was encouraging. Brittany had no prejudices for baselines and harbored no sense of superiority about being a nova, but it would be foolish to not admit that, like any exclusive in-group, novas have their own unique set of problems and issues, and being around her fellow novas gave her a much-needed sense of perspective and responsibility.

Usually, anyway. Brittany felt like she'd been under emotional assault for most of the last couple weeks. First there was the Blackburn, where she'd been virtually the only girl who wasn't fawned over all night. It was a small and totally selfish nit to pick, but she had to admit, begrudgingly, that it had wounded her pride a little. Cat paid attention to me she reminded herself, and made Troy mad, and for all I know I broke them up, and... Then there was the worry, the fear that Robby as Alpha was going to get himself killed fighting that other nova, and the chase that ensued, the dragging him back to the hotel, the cleaning of his wounds, the nervousness and trepidation over the visit to the Clinic the next day, finding out he was an unwitting murderer... None of that was his fault. But that didn't mean it was fun to deal with.

After the Blackburn, she and Robert had come back to Oregon, and she finally showed him the video she'd made at the party that night. To say he didn't take it well would be the understatement of the year. He wasn't so upset that Alpha made an appearance from the revelation, which she guessed was a good sign. But the way he yelled at her, he was so angry...was it with her? No, probably not... But it made her little heart break, all the same. He tried to apologize, but she'd already run away in tears. She cared about him so much, her heart felt like it was dying when he reacted to what she showed him. They hadn't even spoken since, and Brittany had begun to wonder why he hadn't called, whether it was because he was so thickly wading through grief...or whether he really hated her, now. She'd cried her pillow soggy wondering over that in the nights that followed, agonizing over whether he still cared about her, whether she'd ever see him again. But then, Robert wasn't the only reason she'd spent those nights so upset.

Of course, there was Cyn. Brittany'd flown to DC to deliver a speech at American University the day after she and Robert fought, which was strain enough. She was in miserable spirits all day, even up to the point she had to deliver her speech. And then that pyschopath killed Dr. Fuerta, and there was the chase, and the indecision, and the broken arm.

And the rape. It wasn't rape. I let her have me. I wanted her to. She'd returned the following day, and found a couple days later that, to her delight, her arm had healed, even if the sting of failure and her anger for Cyn hadn't. And that was when Cyn came to her home. For the first time since she and Robert fought, she had it in her to play with herself, or at least, she thought. But she'd only just started when Cyn crept into her home in secret, intangibly and invisibly toying with her, playing with her while she played with herself, waiting until Brittany had just began to climax, and then... Well, then, I begged her to fuck me. And she made me cum. And I made her cum. And then she threatened me and left. Brittany had been feeling disgusted with herself ever since. She hated this girl like she didn't even think was possible, and in a fit of weakness and lust, she'd made love to her, willingly been humiliated by her, debased herself for her. After Cyn left her, she'd felt sick, and guilty. She couldn't stand to look at herself in the mirror. She didn't even bathe for four days, and only then relented at the insistance of her father, who threatened to do the job himself if she didn't. She washed, but the grime of self-loathing wasn't easy to scrub off, and the harder she tried, the more she was reminded of Cyn and what she'd done. And to her own disgust, the more she thought of Cyn, the more she wanted to touch herself, to retreat to those memories. She climaxed in the shower and then cried.

A few days later, Brittany was doing her best to force the square peg of her normal routine through the round hole of the utter mess that her life had become when fate threw her a life saver in the form of Missy, a newcomer to the forums calling herself 'Pew Pew Pew'. Missy was young Iowan nova, and as Brittany shortly discovered, a closet lesbian. What had started as a polite inquiry of interest quickly blossomed into a conversation that did a lot to soothe Brittany's cracking sense of self, and for the first time in days, Brittany was beginning to feel like LiberTeen again. She and Missy had begun talking as friends. By the end of the evening, Missy had come out to her, asked Brittany to actually be her date to her senior prom, and most significantly, asked Brittany to be the person who would stand beside her when she told the people in her life that she wasn't ashamed to be herself. For a single, glorious day afterwards, Brittany allowed herself to be happy. Things with Robert would work out, he just needed time. Cyn would be caught, she'd tell Robert about what happened, it'd be okay. And in the meantime, she had a prom date with a beautiful young girl who her heart nearly swelled with pride to know had chosen her to share her secrets with.

And then Balm died.

Brittany had never known Balm particularly well. They were "net-friends", just another one of the girls who hung out on the op forum she frequented, but Brittany liked her a great deal. Balm was sweet, and seemed to be one of the few genuinely good people Brittany supposed she knew, one of the rare few Brittany could feel she could trust. She was Australia's sweetheart, their Slider. And just like Slider, her life had been cut tragically short by the hands of fate. Brittany was the one who announced it to the board, and had cried most of the night afterwards. Sure, she'd never met Balm. But in her own special way, she loved her a great deal, if only for who she was, what she represented. She'd always fancied the idea of getting her into bed someday, too, always hoped that maybe she and Gabe would get together and be happy. No chance for that now. She wondered what Gabe was going to do. She could only imagine how heartbroken he was.

But life goes on, she knew. She'd attend the funeral, she'd mourn and grieve. And she, like everyone else, would move on, past the tragedy. It would just take time. That, at least, is what she'd managed to convince herself of by the following day. She still missed Balm, and cried again that morning, but she knew that happier times were on the horizon, and that Balm knew no pain, wherever she was, whatever you believed. It was the world that should be sad over losing her, not the other way around.

Then Cyn came back. Not to Brittany, or to Robert - whom she still did not know had attacked Robert at all - but this time to Kara B'nath, and to make sure that her insanity and sadism reached the widest audience possible, frightened the most people, she videotaped it and posted it on the op. Brittany couldn't watch it, but still frames were already littering the 'net, news junkies and novaphiles puzzling over who the figure in the video, shown only in silhouette, or parts, was.

Brittany knew. Oh, gawd, no... Cyn...she tortured Caramel Bath, beat her, and... Brittany suppressed a surge of bile rushing up her throat.

She sat opposite the monitor, her face turned away, heaving, her body limp, her face pale and waxen. Why would she do that? Why Kara? Was is just sadism? Was she trying to send a message? To me? My family? The girl shivered like a dying leaf in a hurricane, nearly toppling out of her chair. She went over what she had written only minutes earlier, turning them over in her head desperately; "I really need to not be alone right now." She gulped, shivered, and looked to the part of her home where her parents lay sleeping in silence. I really need to not be home right now. I need to get mom and dad away from danger. If I stay... Tears streamed down her cheek, her arms still clutching her entire body tight as if trying to hold on for fear she might get away. I need Robby.

[Libertyne]

She couldn't fly fast enough. She had to get out of there, away from her home and her family. She loved them all dearly. So much so that as terror crept up her spine, she felt as though the only option left to her was to run. Still wearing only her father's old army jacket, she took a blind, stumbling run into her bedroom where she snatched her day bag off the hook on the wall and pulled her eufirbre costume off the back of a chair without bothering to put it on. As she scurried through the kennel and outside to the open night sky, she thrust the loose fabric to her skin and willed it to warp and flex around her even as her feet left the ground. She didn't know where she was going or why. She only knew that she had to get away immediately. She needed to not be alone. Or to be very alone. She wasn't even sure anyore.

The air was cold to the point of biting tonight, cold enough that without her colony may very well have saved her from freezing over without even realizing it. The night sky was a lustrous black expanse fretted with diamonds that lay across its heavenly blanket like scattered sand. Montana was big sky country, and the horizion went on forever in every direction, the sky above showing its true colors as vast, enveloping, empty, eternal.

The tranquility and solitude of her flight was perfect, but did nothing to avail her grief and fear. Tears spattered her cheeks as she flew, ringing her eyes in red. She'd started out going west, ostensibly to see Robert, but as she flew, she realized that was a stupid idea for more than one reason. For one, Robert still may not even want her around, even if she wanted him. And for two, at her current flightspeed, it'd take no less than fifteen hours to actually get to Medford. Yeah, brilliant thinking, stupid. "Hi, Robby! I heard about what happened to Kara yesterday and flew right over!" Way to look crazy.

She kept flying, anyway. At that moment, it took less will to simply keep going in spite of the fact that she was going nowhere than it would have to turn around and make a choice of what else to do.

An hour in, she hit rain. It poured off her body in sheets, soaking her backpack and her jacket, fogging her goggles and turning her hair into a clumpy mess of wet straw. She kept going, even though the rain poured and blustered, needling every bare inch of her body. Frustration and pain and fear overcame her, and again, she started to cry. The world beneath her faded into a whizzing, unreal blur. She wasn't sure if it was the height, the rain, the lack of light, her mental state, whatever. She didn't care. She just kept going, on and on, as minutes stretched on interminably forward into the horizon until they lost all meaning.

She stopped when she reached the ocean. As she finally met the sea, mirrored perfectly by the sky above, she had a sudden moment of actualization and clarity, as if she just stepped off a carnival ride and at last retrieved her bearings. She really was out in the middle of nowhere, with no idea how it happened. Without puasing to think too much on it, she turned and flew towards the first soft rays of the rising sun.

Twenty minutes later, Robert J. Lambert was jolted out of a peaceful sleep by a frantic, urgent banging on his front door. He'd fallen asleep in front of the television, a single blanket to cover him. As he yawned himself awake, he noticed the darkness and took a look at the clock. 5:25? Who the hell is knocking on my door this early in the morning? Almost reflexively, he shuddered, and wondered if Cyn had returned, but immediately discarded the idea as stupid. Cyn certainly wouldn't knock, after all.

He lumbered toward the door, still rubbing the sleep from his eyes, undid the locks, and at last swung it open, ready for some overenthusiastic paperboy some neighborhood solicitor.

Instead, there stood Brittany, soaked to the bone, salty lines carved into her cheeks, holding her bag, looking like she'd crawled out of an obscure Chinese hell, and had fought every inch just to magically show up on his doorstep.

"Robby", she managed to whimper out, nearly in tears again. "Do you...mind if I c-come in...?"

[Robert J. Lambert]

Robert was shocked to the core, before him standed Britt who he had not seen since the day she showed him...that thing he wanted to forget.

"Yes Britt, you can come inside." Robert held the door open for Brittany, she was soaked to the bone, cold and shivering. She was still wearing her pajamas, and an old army jacket. Robert looked at his watch again 5:26, this was so sudden and surprising, so out of normalicy. "What happened Britt, why are you here? How DID you get here, since I doubt you came in a flight at this hour. Did something go wrong in your house?"

Robert was trying to fill the blanks, for weeks he had been trying to apologize to Brittany for his behavior, she didn't deserve to get yelled at, and she didn't mean to cause him any harm by showing him the video, she just wanted for him to understand what had gone on that night.

Looking at her again, she put her duffle bag down by the chair, where she had put it many times before and looked up at him, her face was wet, but her eye lids were tear filled, and there were slowly going down her face.

"Britt..." Robert didn't had the heart to even ask what happened again, just moving towards Her and holding her to his chest, hugging her in a way that could tell that he was her for her, and that she was going to protect her no matter what it costed.

[Libertyne]

She pressed her body to his, shivering, wet, and cold, and started to cry again. She was here. She was really here, in Robert's arms. She'd made it, somehow. The clock said it was about half past five, but she'd only left her home in Montana less than five hours ago. She didn't care. All that mattered at that moment was that she was here. Robert was holding her. He still cared about her. She was safe. For a brief moment of foolish bliss, she really felt as though nothing in the world could harm her. It wasn't true, and she knew it, but the lie of that sensation felt too good to hurry on thinking past.

"Robby..." she chirped weakly, rubbing her face in his chest, her arms draped around his body, soaking it. "I don't... I don't know how I got here, I just started flying away from home, and I was thinking, and flying, and crying, and I was at the ocean, and the world was a blur, and I just kept going until I came here, I..." She choked on her own words, sobbing, and snorted as the tears began to subside and her composure return. "I wanted to see you, but I was afraid you wouldn't want to see me. I was afraid you were still mad at me, so mad...you wouldn't even look at me. But with what happened to Balm, and Kara, and...oh, Robby...Robby...Cyn, she...she had me, in my home, and threatened my family, and..."

Recounting the events of the last few days proved too much for her fragile calm. Her voice lost her, and tears flowed freely again down her cheeks.

[Robert J. Lambert]

Robert was hit by a sledgehammer of emotions. Surprise as Brit's state, Concern at how she felt he was mad, guilt at having exploded at her like that, anger at Cyn for threatening Britt and her family, and fear at the memory of Cyn's own attack.

But there were more important things at hand, Robert enveloped Brittany on his arms, holding her tightly and stroking her wet hair, trying to calm her down. "Shhh, it will all be ok Brit, you know I will always be here for you." Slowly, leading her towards the living room, he left her fore nary a second as he came back as quickly as possible, holding a big beach towel, putting it around Brittany. "You need to dry up, I can't even begin to phantom what a Nova with a cold will do, better prevent it." He lead her down to his big sofa, the same they had sit on watching movies a couple weeks ago, that now seemed like months apart.

"Now tell me, what's wrong? Calmly, you know I'm here for you."

[Libertyne]

Brittany shivered, melting a little at Robert's touch as the towel found its way around her shoulders and he gently seated her on his family's couch. Her face was pale and ashen, accentuated with red in rings around her eyes and on the crests of her ears, a blush of cold showing in her cheeks and the ivory wall of her collar. She sighed miserably, swallowed, and tried to compose herself. Robby was being sweet, but she was crying and miserable. So he wasn't a monster. That didn't mean he wasn't still mad at her. She resolved to choose her words with caution and care.

"Things have been...bad...since Manhattan, Robby." Her eyes stayed away from his, still afraid that the memory of their argument would relight his ire. "I went to DC a couple days later to do a speech... That was where Cyn showed up, murdered that professor... The police asked me to chase her, so I did, and I got my arm broken..." Rubbing her now-healed fracture absently, she chirped like a wounded dove, trying to finish her story as if recanting it to the police. "A couple days later, she showed up at my house...she...she threatened my parents...came all the way to Montana just because she wanted to torture me, and..." A whimper of shame escaped her lips. There was no sense in being evasive about things; he'd find out in due time. "She caught me...while I was playing with myself... And...um...we had sex. She...she seduced me, I seduced her, I don't know...I don't know what's wrong with me... It was stupid. I was stupid." She heaved out a breath as sadness overcame her again, continuing, "And then there was what happened to Balm... I already felt horrible and disgusting, but then, poor Balm..." Hot tears spilled down her cheeks anew, and she choked slightly, as if having to swallow the events all over again. "And now, tonight...there's a video online...of...of Kara...being tortured...mutilated...maybe killed, Robby...and...and they don't know who did it, but I do...it's...it's Cyn...she told me she'd see me again, and now Balm's dead, and Kara might be, and I'm so worried, and sick with sadness, and missed you so much..." Hanging her head pathetically, she stopped, slumping into the cushions, misery plain as the nose on her face. "I'm sorry", she whispered.

[Robert J. Lambert]

Robert enveloped Brittany on his arms again, "There is nothing to be sorry about Britt, people have been dropping left and right because Life has been horrible lately. It will get better, believe me." Robert's face might say one thing, but on his inside he was on turmoil, Kara being mutilated on the OpNet? Who could have done something like that?! He had to get in contact with Ravenshire, he always knew everything about this things.

"You are still freezing Britt, why don't we go into the kitchen? I will make us chocolate, and we can talk slowly about this. It will be better if we take it slowly right now, and start by calming you down." Robert figured the best way to go through this would be to calm her down, he couldn't remember for the life of him what happened the day his parent's died or how the cops or the paramedics of whoever calmed him down, chocolate would be the best answer for now.

"Come into the kitchen, we can keep warm with the stove."

[Libertyne]

Brittany nodded and shivered, allowing him to escort her to the kitchen. She took one of the seats at the supper table and looked around the room with hangdog eyes as Robert began to put water on for cocoa, lighting a fire in the stove for warmth. Memories good and bad played across the screen of her mind. This was where she and he had made love the first time, the first time he turned into Alpha... It was also where she'd shown him the video, where he'd become enraged, yelling, nearly in tears, before she started to cry, herself, running from the house and flying off. She silently wondered how this meeting would end, and wondered if he'd heard and understood everything she said. Even she wasn't comfortable with what she'd done with Cyn, she couldn't imagine how Robert could be so nonchalant and accepting. She hoped he wasn't simply holding back because she was upset. She was upset, after all, bu if he was going to kick her out or start yelling, she also wished he'd just get on with it.

"Marshmallows?", Robert half-turned and asked, strangely stoic, all things considered.

Brittany nodded and swallowed in reply, and he turned back away, mixing up packets of powdered cocoa into a pair of mugs he'd retrieved from the kitchen cupboard, then dipping into the fridge for milk and the jet-puffed sugar.

"Robby...", she started, feeling sick. "You...you understand, right? I...Balm's dead, and Kara's...Kara's maybe dead, and...I had sex...with Cyn...and..." She sighed and gulped hard as Robert stood at the counter, finishing the concoctions with piping hot water. "You were really angry, the last time I left. I...um...I didn't know if I'd ever be welcome in your home again. But I hoped I would...because...I like you a lot, Robby. And...I...I don't know how it would or could work, but...I...kind of...want to be with you."

One of the mugs hit the kitchen counter with a ceramic clatter, spilling a third of its contents out. "Wha!?", Robert jarred, turning back for an instant before covering his hand with boiling water and reflexively grabbing for a towel to clean it up. From his reaction, it would be hard to tell whether he was surprised or repulsed. Brittany marshaled on, regardless.

"When all these things happened...when I...tonight, when I found out about Kara, I felt so lost, and helpless, and hurt...and...all I could really think of was getting here, to see you. I know...you...probably that's not what you want...I know you're probably still really angry with me...and I'm sorry...but..." She shrugged and sighed. "I haven't ever really felt this way about anybody before. I don't know if it's love...I think...it's something like what becomes love, if you nurture it. I think about you all the time. I miss you when you're not around. You're kind, and decent, and a good and honest and hard-working and noble man... And I care about you very much. Plus", she choke-snorted, smiling sheepishly for a shadow of a moment, "you're a terrific lay." She paused again, unable to look him in the eye, and sighed, reflecting. "I don't know why I picked now to tell you this... But I guess you deserve to know. Then again, I guess that whole 'you deserve to know' attitude has gotten me into trouble with you before, so maybe I'm just crazy. But... I'm vulnerable and sad and pouring my heart out to you, and you're making me cocoa and listening to me and trying to keep me warm. And I adore you for it."

[Robert J. Lambert]

Robert sighed, picking up the pieces of the mug from the floor, before starting to clean up the cocoa that was spilled. Avoiding Britt's eyes, he kept his stare focused on the task at hand. "Britt, Last time you were here....I was confused, an enraged, and I was hit with a horrible wave of guilt."

Going down on one knee, he kept at his work "I mean, you had just told me I'm a monster right out of a horror movie, some animalistic creature that attacks on instinct and wants to be king of the hill and damn the rest." Finally, putting it all down on the trash he sits directly across from Britt, waiting for more water to boil for his own cocoa. "Don't take me wrong, it's awesome and something in me clicked telling me that those are my powers, but damn it. I don't get to use them? I don't get to see how it's like? and worse of all, I don't get to put moral control on those powers? What the hell?"

"I spent the better part of a year running from a 'Stalker' that turned out to be myself, a stalker that murdered persons near to me, a Stalker that...that..." Robert couldn't help but break down at this, memories flooding back of the morning during the 26th. He wiped the tears from his eyes, putting up a smile again. "It was a bad moment for me, I had to lash out at anything and you just happened to be near Britt...it's something I'm horribly sorry about, and something I will regret forever, because you are the last person I wish to hurt Britt." Robert extends his hand across the table, palm up. "as far as for your current situation, Balm is dead, but she was a Torrowite, she knew that dying was part of the job description. On Kara, we don't know if she is dead, if she is alive or who did it, but I'm sure someone is on it. I will call Ravenshire tomorrow morning if it makes you feel better, he is much better informed on the worldly news that I am... As for Cyn...well, I can assure you, it was not sex, it was rape. Psychopaths like Cyn can't have it any other way, what with their obsessive compulsion with having the upper hand."

Robert sigthed, taking a breathing moment, he really hated having to talk for such a long period of time. "For now, forget about all that, nothing else outside this house exists for the next eight hours, and YOU need sleep sweetie."

[Libertyne]

The cocoa was good, Brittany remarked to herself, as she took the first sip, giving her hoarse throat a rest to let Robert speak. She looked at him or the table as he spoke, depending upon the subject he was discussing. She knew that most of what he was saying was true, of course. She'd dropped a significant bombshell on him that night. Given the circumstances, lashing out in rage and anger was just about the only sane option anyone could manage. You'd have to be heartless to take news like that calmly. Still...in the silence that had followed, she wondered to herself whether he wasn't calling her because he was ashamed of his behavior, grieving his loss anew, angry at the world and his condition, fearful of capture...or simply hateful of the person who was finally able to reveal to him the truth about himself.

"You're right...", she sniffled. "About...well, everything. Thank you, Robby." She reached across the table and put her small, delicate hand on top of his. She gulped and looked up at him, unsure whether or not she should be asking what she was about to, but knowing she lacked the strength not to request it. "Robby, could you...I mean, will you...just...sleep beside me? Just...hold me as I sleep?"

There would be plenty of time to talk more in the morning, she knew, but right now, she was with Robert again, and Robert was warm and welcoming and sweet, and it sounded like the most marvelous thing in the world to curl up in his arms and simply fall asleep.

[Robert J. Lambert]

"Of course Britt, I will sleep besides you and hold you forever if that's what you want." Robert lead Brittany to his bed-room, where he laid on bed with her, letting the hours go by as she slept and recovered from the night.

[Libertyne]

She woke in his arms a little after noon, being roused by the sun as it crept up at such an angle that the rays finally shone from the skylight above directly down onto her serenely torpid face. As her eyes fluttered open, she saw Robert there, already awake, probably long since so, holding her, just as she asked.

Brittany yawned herself awake. "How long have you been up, Robbie?"

"Couple hours", he smiled knowingly. "But I had a promise to keep. And besides, you can't beat this view."

She smiled back at him. "Thanks..." Leaning in, she kissed his cheek, then his lips. Her eyes evaded him for a moment as she thought over the events of the past night, a somewhat bittersweet expression on her face and a blush in her cheeks. "I...I guess we've got a lot to discuss, huh?"

Robert only nodded, with appreciative gravity to the situation. "But first", he smiled slightly, "why don't you go grab a bath, and I'll make a little food. Coffee?"

"Yeah", she chuckled slightly. "I think I could use some. Thanks...again...", she kissed him, standing up from the bed.

He only smiled a bit in reply, as if to tell her it was alright, got up, and ambled downstairs.

Brittany stretched, and took note of a framed photo of Mr. and Mrs. Lambert, Robert's parents, which he kept near the bed he now occupied. Brittany sighed mournfully, knitting her brow. Robert had been through so much... And here he was, being her rock. She really was a decent guy. Maybe more decent than she deserved.

With a drag in her step, she walked to the bathroom and turned on the water.

[Robert J. Lambert]

Pot, Water, Coffee Maker, fresh filter and fresh coffee. Voila, some milk and sugar should fix anything that could be wrong with the drink, and they should be done in minutes time.

This left Robert with blissful minutes to listen to the sounds of his home. Water pipes carrying water upstairs, the sound of the shower, a very sere sound, something he had not heard in a while now except when he was in the shower.

Having someone else in the house, not being alone all the time and feeling liked, Robert missed all those things, a lot. Being forced to live alone left him with a sense of void on his life, one that he didn't felt whenever he was with Britt.

Robert was left to the wanderings of his own mind as the morning crawled by.

[Libertyne]

The shower felt wonderful, she confessed. After the night she'd had, a nice, hot shower felt like being born anew, like the pain and grit could simply be soaped up and washed away. She took her time, and when she finally got out, she really did feel a lot better. Things weren't so bad, after all, she told herself. Life would roll on, and with time, things would be okay.

In the meantime, in spite of everything - Balm, Kara, Cyn, Robert - she didn't feel all that bad. And with any luck, they were getting better. As Brittany toweled off, she opened the door and stepped back into the bedroom, scrubbing her hair dry. She looked out the windows of the quaint little house, surrounded by woods, and felt very at peace. It was almost like playing house; here she was in a quaint little home in the woods, the boy she liked downstairs, and for all practical purposes, alone in the world, for the moment. She sighed to herself contentedly and thought of how nice it would be if things could stay this way. If everyone else outside these walls just went away, leaving nothing but a quaint little home and its three occupants (musn't forget Wolfie!) in an endless stretch of forest. For the moment, it really felt that way.

Brittany finished drying off, and reached for her colony, which she'd left in a limp heap on the bathroom counter. No doubt it was handy, but at the moment, it seemed like an unwelcome guest, a subtle reminder of the trappings of her pressure-filled existence. She thought for a moment, smirked, and decided to just go downstairs.

Her bare feet padding down the steps softly, Robert almost didn't notice that she'd joined him in the kitchen. A moment before she leapt upon him, however, he turned and spotted her threadless form out of the corner of his eye, and with a lunge, she was upon him, her bare skin clinging to his clothes. "Good afternoon, Robby", she smiled up at him. "Coffee's ready?"

[Robert J. Lambert]

"Ye-Yes, Coffee is ready Britt." Robert put his arms around her waist, closing any small gap between their bodies. "My my, full of energy aren't we?"

Robert lowered his head, as she stood on tip toes to kiss her. "I'm glad you are here you know? I never knew just how alone I was until you spent the night here..."

"I wish it could be like this always..."

[Libertyne]

"Robby..." she peeped affectionately, rubbing her nakedness gently against his body. "You know, maybe it could be..."

She let him go, and took a step back, looking up into his eyes. Another half-step back brought her into one of the kitchen chairs. She folded her hands into her lap and started to think and talk. "I...I really like you, Robby. I wasn't kidding, or just saying it because I was distressed. I like you. A lot. I like being with you. I want to keep being with you. I..." She sighed, and grimaced apologetically. "But I still want to be me. To be LiberTeen. I haven't really dated a lot, you know... I mean, the last time I'd say I had a real "boyfriend" or "girlfriend", I must have been in tenth grade. Oh! But, that's not to say that I've even really been around all that much even since then! To be honest, Robby..." She blushed a little at the thought, worried slightly about whether she was bruising Robert's sensibilities. "You were only third guy I've had sex with, and there haven't been any since. There was other stuff, too, of course. Other girls..." She shrugged. "I guess on the whole, I like girls better than guys, but that's just physical attraction. And I fooled around, too, you know, but not a lot. I was less a 'slut' than a lot of girls at my high school. I was just the one who wasn't ashamed to be sexual.

"And really, that's most of what it is. I'm just not ashamed of being sexual." She sighed and winced, as if remembering something unpleasant. "I'm really not the insatiable sexual dynamo people seem to think I am. The details of my sex life are far less thrilling than you'd think, you know. I just think that sex isn't something to be afraid of or shamed by, and I'm comfortable with my body and what I do. I'd like to stay comfortable with my body and what I do, and I still want to espouse the things I espouse, and practice the things I preach."

She paused, returning her gaze to his. "But I want you, too. I know... I know that in all likelihood, that's not going to be enough for you. But...if you like me...if you really like me, like I like you... I'd be willing to try and make something work... Do...do you think we could, Robby?"

[Robert J. Lambert]

The Bombshell reached Robert's brain and exploded. LiberTeen was on his kitchen, naked, asking him to go steady with her, but to let her be as sexual as she wanted with other people.

Robert sat on the chair closest to her "Britt, I like you a lot too., the days I see you tend to be fun filled and I always have fun with you, and when you stay over I always have the best view on earth before me. But... I don't know if I could be in a relationship where we are not being exclusive, I told you before that I'm bad at sharing, remember? It would kill me to see you with another man."

[Libertyne]

"Well..." Brittany thought a moment, inhaling. Exclusivity wasn't really something that was generally on her radar, but on the other hand, it wasn't exactly an option that anybody had bothered to present her with, either. The kind of guys she had attracted in the past tended to be the sort who only wanted to pump and dump. Naturally, her liberated attitude towards sexuality scared off a lot of the more 'traditional' guys. And while monogamy was something she inwardly bristled at, if only because it felt so much like needlessly bricking off a door she may want to one day walk through again, she wasn't so simple to think that she'd get everything she wanted without having to give something up. That wasn't the kind of guy Robert was, and she respected his feelings, even if she didn't completely share them.

But that's what compromise is for, right? After a moment of pensive thought, she came back to him, "What if I didn't sleep with other men?"

Robert raised a single eyebrow, a questioning look on his face.

"Well, like I said, I like girls better, anyway. And I know you might not be wild about letting me sleep with other girls, but if you're anything like most men in the world, the thought at least must turn you on." She smiled a little bit, hoping he'd smile back, and to her relief, he cracked a little. "And even still, you have to acknowledge that as much as I'm attracted to you - and I am, Robby, believe me, I am", she added with an almost orgasmic gush, "you have to admit that there are certain physical pleasures that you simply can't offer me by fiat of biology."

"So...?", Robert offered, letting her round up her offer in one final statement.

"So... I won't sleep with other men, if you'll permit me to continue seeing other girls. Maybe that means having a girlfriend at some point, or maybe it means just seeing other girls. But either way, I won't sleep with other men. And if you want..." She shrugged a little bit, not sure how steady the ground she was treading on was, "If you want to see other people, that's okay with me. Boys, girls, whatever you like. I'd be especially happy if you brought me along, but I'm willing to offer you the freedom to explore other people without me getting upset about it, even if you're not going to take me up on it. And who knows", she smiled, "maybe down the road, we can make things more open or less, depending on how we're moving along. Maybe you'll get okay with me sleeping with other guys if you're there to help. Maybe I'll decide I like monogamy. But we can wait and see."

She reached out his hand to his and held it, gently stroking his palm with her thumb as she looked him in the eyes. "The important thing to remember, Robby, is that I am emotionally committed to you. Sex is just sex, and it's fun, but you're the one I care about, and want caring about me."

[Robert J. Lambert]

Robert turned the idea around his head, getting the chance to have LiberTeen as a steady girlfriend, the chance to flirt a bit around and to get into a threesome? Too good to be true.

"Well Brittany, this is a tough decision. All my life I was told sex was sinful if done outside of marriage, of course I was a 7th months baby according to my parent's wedding day and my birth. So who are they to judge." Winking at Brittany, Robert cupped her hands between hers. "I don't know what the future awaits for us Brittany, but I know that I like being with you, a lot. I guess this deal is just a small price to pay after all, and I don't think I would be seeing other women, you are a handful as it is!" Running his thumb across her delicate hands "But, if you don't mind giving up men, I could ask you for some tips on how to pick up girls after-all."

Robert bared a wide toothy grin he got up and exited the kitchen, backhandedly saying "Say...Britt, want to help me check if we need a bigger bed on my room? or should we see if we fit on my queen size?" Moving up the stairs, just as he disappeared into the second floor, his shirt is dropped in front of the kitchen crumpled into a heap.