Note: This story was dynamically reformatted for online reading convenience.
 
 Touched
   by Nysidra
   Romance (mf)
   <->
   -_ Bleachers _-
   Maya climbed the bleachers and eased down the row until she found a spot
to sit.  She had returned home from her 'abduction' two weeks after the
start of school.  The auditorium held a sea of unfamiliar faces.  No hope
of reconnection with the one she left behind, her best friend.
   She scanned the bleachers.  Not as many strangers as she initially
thought.  A few people looked familiar.  There was Becky.  They'd worked on
their history presentation together in the 6th grade.  She passed notes
with Victoria, the red head with the freckles sitting on the other side of
the gym on the first row.  She hadn't changed much.  Her hair was longer
though, and looking much healthier.
   Maya's breath caught as she fixated on the third familiar face in the
crowd.
   He had traded the massive cloud of spirals for shoulder length braids.
He was lean, tall.  He wore a black button down shirt and dark blue jeans.
No mistake, time and maturity be damned, it was Vix.  The floor felt like
it had dropped several thousand feet.  Her heart pounded and breath turned
shallow.
   Vix.
   -_ Park _Twelve year old Maya guided the screen door back to the frame
so that her departure remained a secret.
   "When the fuck were you going to tell me?!" Her mother yelled.
   "Damn it, Linda..."
   She'd gotten dressed while her dad explained the loss of his job to his
brother on the phone.  Ten blocks later she arrived to the park and she sat
on the swing, rocking back of forth, gliding through the air.  Next she
went over to the monkey bars, crawled up to the top and overlooked the
neighborhood.
   She was going to make a friend today.  The park had been empty for a
while, but it was a nice day out.  Maybe someone would stop by before
sunset.
   The next person she saw was going to be her friend.
   Maya jutted out her chin and made a confident nod of her head.  The
latest episode of Hillary's Life had been about making friends.  Maya had
taken notes.
   A noise drew her attention.  It came from behind the azalea bushes
lining the park.  She stood on the monkey bars and spied a little girl on
the other side.  She had a head full of dark spiraled hair.
   Maya jumped down from the steel structure and reviewed the steps for
meeting new people.
   She squeezed between the brush and flashed a great big smile at the ...
boy ...  sitting on the mulched ground.
   His eyes were red.  White tracks of dried tears marked his puffy cheeks.
He had a scratch down the side of his face.  A trickle of blood ran down
his leg.  His clothes were crumpled and dirty.  He sniffled and glared at
her.  He may have been crying and hurt, but he wasn't sad.  He looked
furious, like he should have been growling instead of crying.
   "M-m-m-my ...  my name ...  is Maya." She swallowed.
   "Fuck off, Maya." He had a deep voice, sullen tone.  It was as clear a
warning as any.  He looked like he might have been her age, maybe a year or
two older.  However, a year or two could make a world of difference.
   He lowered his head and his breath hitched, as he inhaled, his chest
rattled.  About a minute later, he looked up and scowled.  "Are you
stupid?"
   "No."
   "Then go the fuck away."
   "No."
   He rolled his eyes.  "Fine then.  Lift your shirt and show me your
tits."
   She gasped and rocked back.  She didn't even have any to show!  Not
really.  Her mother cursed when she began to notice her clothes didn't fit
anymore.  Her father often yelled at her to cover up because she didn't
have anything worth looking at.
   He snorted and went back to staring at the ground.
   "Tell me your name and I'll show you." This wasn't the correct way to
make friends.  Not exactly.  The first step was to be courteous and
exchange names.  Then they could talk about the stuff they had in common.
He wasn't supposed to be rude.
   Maya knew what the episode didn't talk about.  She knew how much it
sucked to cry alone, to hurt alone.  Worse, to have no one care that you
were hurt and crying.  They had that in common, even if he didn't know it.
   "Ver ...  Ver..." He snarled then.  "What does my name fucking matter?"
   She chanced easing closer to him rather than away.  She grabbed the end
of her sweatshirt and pulled the heavy fabric up to her chin.
   He looked at her and huffed.  "Damn.  Put your shirt down."
   She smoothed the fabric down with a shrug.  "Figured you'd see for
yourself."
   "What?"
   "I'm nothing worth looking at."
   His sandstone colored skin turned a furious red and he cursed under his
breath.  "Vix.  Call me Vix.  Go away."
   She turned and went back to the park.  She didn't go home, couldn't.  It
was too soon for that.  She went back to the swings.  She didn't know when
he left, but the spot was empty when she was ready to head home.
   -_ Worthy _Maya was still in a daze when she got home from school.  She
sent a text to her mother letting her know she was in the house.
Mom: "Thx.  Get a snack.  Bringing dinner."
She sat to the counter, but she didn't feel like eating.  She took out
her work, but instead of studying she pulled out her sticky notes.  If she
saw him again she'd need to be ready.
   'There's more to look at.'
   She blushed and scratched out the words almost as soon as they were
written.  It had been two years since she last saw him.  As much as she
knew then, she knew now: a couple years could make all the difference in
the world.  Didn't she remember the other stuff as well?
   Vix wasn't an innocent boy then, and if the look she'd gotten of him
today was any indication, he hadn't gotten soft with age.
   Much harder, in fact.
   Her blush deepened.  Her first impression of the crying boy in the
corner had been dead wrong.  She was the one who needed to look deeper.
   -_ Explore _Maya explored the eastern end of the neighborhood on her
bike.  It required crossing a four lane road, which she didn't usually do,
but she was bored and she had a few hours to kill.  Her father, not having
a job, was around the house more often, and tended to spend most of his day
yelling at her.  When Mom got home, she could get the brunt of his anger.
   She stopped her bike at a convenience store.  Fumbling in her pockets
she counted enough for a pop and a bag of chips, maybe some sweets.  She
lay her bike against the building and walked toward the door.
   Footsteps drew her attention.  A group of four boys approached the door
as well.
   It had been a week since she'd seen him.  He was looking so much better,
not all puffy and bruised and dirty.
   "Hi Vix!" She called out with a bright smile.
   A chorus of chuckles broke out behind him.  The three taller, bigger
boys all clung to each other with laughter.
   "That's even better than Vernon!" The blond sank to the ground, wiping
his cheeks.
   "Vixie the Pixie," the beefy one said.  "Go on and buy my fucking
lunch." He pushed Vix forward and crooked his finger at her.  "Come here,
girl.  You look sweet enough to eat."
   Maya hurried into the store.
   Vix ...  Vernon pushed past her and browsed the aisles.
   Maya looked at Vix and then to the loitering gang.  So, they hadn't been
his friends.
   "Excuse me, sir?" She went over to the checkout counter.
   "Hmm?" He barely pulled his eyes away from the TV.
   "May we go out the back?"
   "No."
   "Please, I'm scared."
   He snorted and rolled his eyes at the trio still laughing out front.  "I
see them.  You and who else?"
   She pointed to Vix.
   He craned his neck to look at Vix.  "Uh huh.  You know him?"
   "Not really.  I think those boys are bullying him."
   "Well, we can't have that can we?"
   "No, sir."
   He grinned down at her.  "Anything turns up missing and I'm going to
find you and turn you into the police."
   "Yes, sir." She hurried over to Vix and took him by the hand.  "Come
on." He wasn't much taller or bigger than her, but when he stopped moving,
he practically yanked her off her feet.  "We can go through there," she
pointed to the Employees Only door.  "The man at the register said we
could."
   "Mr.  Bell said you could take me through the back exit?" He narrowed
his eyes at her.
   What was he angry about?  She was trying to help him.  She tugged on his
hand again, but to no effect.  "Yes, but we can't steal anything.  Come
on."
   Dark brown eyes looked her over.  "Your bike is out front."
   "I'll go back for it."
   He tilted his head to the opposite side, this time looking confused. 
"Derrick is Mr.  Bell's younger brother."
   She shook her head and looked back toward the register.  His eyes were
back on the game and he was laughing to himself.  She supposed Derrick was
one of the boys out front.
   "Are you--"
   "I guess so," she snatched her hand back and immediately regretted it.
"Yes," she said softly.  "I'm stupid.  Sorry, whoever you are."
   This time she was the one crying.  She was going to go through the front
door, hop on her bike and never head in this direction again.  She didn't
know where all this friend making stupidity came from.  She could never
bring anyone home, go to any parties, have sleepovers.
   Especially not with a boy.
   His arm hooked around her waist, and he whispered in her ear.  "You have
one more time to put words in my mouth." His other arm went around her
shoulder and he continued to whisper, "I told you to put your fucking shirt
down because you shouldn't go around flashing your tits, pretty as they
are, to a fucking stranger."
   "No one's ever seen them."
   "What?"
   "I don't go around 'flashing' them.  No one's ever seen them but you."
Jeans and long skirts, baggy shirts and jackets.  No one wanted to see her
gangly body.
   "Why'd you show me?"
   "You asked, and ...  I was trying to make a friend.  I wanted to know
your name."
   "Fuck, girl, that's not how you make friends." He sighed and stepped
back from her.  "Are you from around here?"
   She shook her head, realizing the other way she'd put words in his
mouth. "I live near the park.  What's your real name?"
   "Vernon Idris Xanthe." He bit out.
   She smiled, making the connection immediately.  "Oh," and why they'd
been picking on him.  "Oh.  Sorry."
   "You're about to learn a very important lesson." He said as he tucked an
errant spiral behind his ear.
   "What's that?"
   "Choose your friends more wisely." As his arm was still around her
waist, when he marched toward the front door, she was pulled along with
him.
   They left the store and Maya was on her bike by the time the three boys
ran around the block.  Mr.  Bell must have gotten word to them that they
wouldn't be at the back door.
   Maya pedaled down the block and looked back, but Vix wasn't behind her,
wasn't running away.  He'd only gone past the store.  The beefy one came
towards him ready to strike, but Vix was like a snake.  He lashed out and
punched the boy in his gut.
   "You're welcome to fuck with me all you like, but leave her alone.  If I
even think you've harmed her, I'll bury you."
   The blond, the oldest looking of them, thundered over to Vix, but Vix
held his ground, struck again, three of four moves as quick as a boxer. 
The blond whimpered and staggered away from Vix, confusion as he looked at
Maya and back to Vix.
   The third boy looked over to Maya and shook his head.  Whatever he said
to Vix must have been sufficient to avoid violence.
   Vix turned around and started walking over to her.  His back was to the
three of them, but she watched, waited in case she needed to warn him. 
They were older, taller, and looked meaner, but Vix had hurt them, probably
for the first time.  They looked confused.
   Not nearly as confused as Maya felt.
   -_ Choices _-
   'If I had it to do all over again, I'd still choose you.'
   With a heavy sigh, Maya flipped her pencil and erased the message.  At
the front of the social studies class, Mrs.  Winsome continued her rote
recitation of the chapter in the book.
   Vix was somewhere in the building with her today.  Each time the bell
rang she kept an eye out.  She hadn't seen him yet, but she hoped it would
happen soon.  Just one glimpse, one look and it would make her day.  Then
she wouldn't think she had imagined seeing him.
   How her mother would react learning that he was in the same school with
her after all?
   "I wasn't able to get your friend's number before I moved.  I only ever
spoke to her mother and that was about two weeks after you were gone."
   "Who?" Maya scoured her brain trying to think of a girl she'd had for a
friend.
   "Vix?  I think.  Anyway.  Her mother was concerned and stopped by to see
me."
   Maya had never met Vix's parents.  She knew he had them.  Someone had to
have that house and its luxuries, but she'd never been around to see them.
   Her mother thought Vix was a girl.
   She grinned and went back to writing and erasing notes.  She had to
figure this out before she saw him.  Had to figure out what words to say.
   -_ Home Visit _Vix found her at the park a couple days later.  She'd
been swinging with her eyes closed.  She opened them with a gasp, at first
her mind only registering a dark figure standing just beside the swing
watching her before she vaulted forward.
   "Hi." She worked against the momentum of the swing.
   "Hi.  Are you out here alone?"
   "Yes."
   "Come with me."
   He was a kid, like her.  That's why she hopped off the swing and
followed him.
   "Who were those boys?"
   Vix shrugged.  "Mike, Derrick, Brett - sad group.  They needed to let
off some steam, and used me.  I used them too.  Can't learn to fight if you
don't know how to take a hit."
   "What?  That doesn't make any sense at all.  You let them bully you?"
   "I studied them, learned their weaknesses.  If not me, it would have
been another kid who couldn't take it.  You gave me a good reason to put an
end to it."
   They walked around the side of a house and into the backyard.  "This is
my house."
   "Cool."
   "When you come over, leave your bike here, then," he stepped on a stone
under an open window.  "This is my room."
   "Why the window?"
   He crawled in and hopped down.  "Get in here."
   It was a low window and she stepped easily into the room.  Wow, he had a
huge room.  With a TV, game console, large bed, desk, computer.
   "Come here instead of the park." He settled on the floor and turned on
his TV.  "You have one of these?"
   "No." Her voice was barely a whisper.  She didn't have anything.  It was
then Maya realized how little she had.  Her father made a point to tell her
how lucky she was to have food and clothes, never mind the rest.  She was
getting too old for toys and 'other bullshit.'
   He leaned forward and thumbed through his shelf filled with games. 
"What do you do then?"
   "At home?"
   "Yeah."
   Stay invisible.  "Read."
   He looked back over his shoulder.  "Read what?"
   So she told him about her favorite authors, the horror and fantasy, a
little science fiction.  She tended to prefer stories that depicted lives
far worse than her own, as a reminder, like her father said, 'things could
be worse.'
   He turned off the TV and set the controllers aside.  He stood and walked
over to a closet she assumed had clothing inside.  When he pulled back the
door she gasped at the hidden library.
   "Wait," he said.
   "What?" She looked around him, scanning the titles.  They liked the same
books!
   So much time passed looking at the books, unable to touch them.  She
ignored the fact that he spent the whole time staring at her.  He stepped
aside and welcomed her to choose a book.
   She went immediately for the latest Cary Yates series.  This one was
always checked out at the library and she couldn't get her hand on it.
   He already had a book open and he pointed to the spot beside him on the
bed.
   On the bed ...  with a boy ...  she crawled up and lay down next to him.
At the time she didn't think much of it.  No one thought of her like that.
She was safe with him.  No one wanted to see her.
   -_ Meals _-
   'Read any good books lately?'
   She thought on that one a while, letting the memory of the past linger.
She devoured his book collection, reading as much as he let her.  She
picked books she'd never heard of, filled with things that made her jaw
drop.  When she didn't understand a word, all she had to do was ask.  He
knew all the words, understood them, and even gave her examples when she
wanted them.
   They snuggled next to each other on the bed like two best friends.  When
she got hungry, he'd leave the room a moment and return with enough food
from them both, but only on one plate.
   From the very first time, he picked up the spoon and held it to her
mouth.
   "I'm not a baby," she said with a frown.
   Vix hummed and gave her the spoon then he opened his mouth.
   She giggled and put the food in.  He had really nice lips, soft and
full.
   "Did you feel like my mother just then?"
   "Um," she blinked and shook her head.  "No."
   He opened his hand for the spoon and when he lifted the food to her
mouth.  She opened, and no, she didn't feel like a baby.  She flushed under
her massive long sleeve shirt and baggy jeans.
   Maya turned into the cafeteria and looked around.  There were a bunch of
empty tables toward the left.
   "Hey," Bethany shook her head.  "That's the senior section.  We can't
sit over there.  Come over here.  I'll introduce you to my friends."
   Maya allowed Bethany to lead her back over to the right.  She sat down
and smiled and nodded to Bethany's friends: Haley and Cassandra.
   She ate and discounted a note about reading books.  She picked through
the food.  It was all right, but given her past head space, it made her
think of all the good things they fed each other.  She'd never eaten as
well as she did at his house.  Her parents were grateful that she was
hogging less of the food at dinner, when she bothered to have dinner.  To
their horror, she was also putting on weight, and Vix didn't like her
reaction one bit.
   "If you mean to say you're no longer underweight, then I'm glad and I
agree."
   Would she share a meal with him again one day?
   Maya looked up, scanning the busy lunch room.
   Vix stared at her from the other side of the room, sitting sideways on a
bench, facing her, looking every bit the shadow warrior she imagined him to
be in the auditorium.  He was looking at her, not he least bit confused nor
questioning.  Vix saw and recognized her.
   Maya stilled.  Her heart thundered.  She would have collapsed if she
wasn't already sitting.  Now what?  What would she say?  Was he angry?
   Fear.  That's what Maya felt as she looked at him.  Fear that he didn't
understand, that he hated her.
   He got up from the table and went out the door beside him.
   She didn't see him for the remainder of the lunch period, and spent each
moment anxious about into him unprepared.
   -_ Naked _-
   A dark Saturday morning, Maya left the house before the sun.  She got on
her bike and rode to Vix's house, pedaling hard to beat the coming rain. 
She didn't want to be home when the storm hit.
   Her parents had been fighting more rather than less.  They figured she
was hanging out with her friends, spending all day at the library.  The
only thing that mattered was she wasn't a burden.
   Yes, she had a friend.  Just the one, male.  No one else would talk to
her, and now that didn't matter.  No one messed with her when she was in
the library or at the store or the park - the rare times Vix's window was
shut meant she couldn't come over.
   Though the wind kicked up the window was open.  She didn't have to think
about a Plan B, which was great, because she didn't have one.
   She parked her bike and hefted herself into the window.
   Vix propped up on one elbow in his bed.  "Stop."
   She paused, her back to the window, eyes wide.  What had she done?
   "Close the window."
   Oh.  She turned and slid the window shut.  She'd beat the rain by about
five or ten minutes by the look of the dark clouds and shifting tree tops.
   "Take off all your clothes and whatever is in your hair."
   A gust of wind rattled the wind chimes next door.  Vix didn't look as if
he were attempting a joke.  He didn't offer an ultimatum.  He didn't repeat
himself.
   Was he dressed under those bed sheets?
   Maya unbuttoned the baggy blouse from goodwill, thick, heavy, and hot.
She knew the armpits were stained with perspiration.  The ugly blouse
worked to cover her up.  Under it, she had on another shirt, a cotton one
to take the place of the bras she didn't own.  Her mother promised to get
her one before school started.
   If this was a test and he was kidding, then he'd tell her to stop soon.
Maya pulled off the shirt and set it down on top of the blouse, then began
to unbuckle her belt and took off the jeans.  She kicked out of her
sneakers and took off her socks.  She looked down at the shorts she was
wearing over her panties.
   All of her clothes.
   She reached up for the elastic tie in her hair, then down for the
shorts. She really couldn't take off the panties and now she had to tell
him why.
   Maya looked at Vix.  She took the breath and her mouth opened, but she
didn't make a sound.
   She hooked her thumbs into her panties and slid them down.  Her whole
body flushed with heat.  She buried her underwear under her jeans and
stood, arms over her breasts and ankles crossed.
   Vix pushed the covers back.  He had on a dark pair of briefs.  "Stand in
front of the mirror."
   Pure unadulterated mortification.  Why?!  Walking those few steps were
so hard.  The rain poured down in sheets, drumming on the roof.  The storm
that would have kept her at home now imprisoned her with him.
   "Hands at your side." He was quiet during the several minutes to took
her to obey.  "Legs apart."
   "But," She whimpered as she inched them wider and wider until they were
over shoulder width apart.  Her whole body swayed with embarrassment.
   The bed shifted and he walked to stand behind her.  He put his chin on
her shoulder and met her eyes in the mirror.  He wasn't looking at her body
at all.
   "Why am I standing here like this?" She whimpered and her stomach
churned with nerves.  Any minute now he was going to see why telling her to
undress was a stupid idea.
   "Because you are becoming more beautiful every day, and I want to look
at you." He sighed heavily and his eyes left hers, traveling up and down
her reflection.
   More beautiful every day.  His words echoed in her mind.  Vix thought
she was pretty?!  That superseded all her fantasies, the ones she let
herself run away with in the dark.  Vix thought she was beautiful.  Well,
up until he made her undress.  Did he realize his mistake?
   She shut her eyes.  She wanted to fade away into nothing rather than
have him look at her with disgust.
   "Is it painful?"
   "What?" Her eyes were still squeezed shut.  What was he talking about?
   His finger slid up her inner thigh.
   Her whole body trembled.  This time she did sway and nearly lost her
balance, but only nearly, because he supported her weight with his own.
   "Is it?"
   "No.  Not today.  It hurt yesterday."
   "Stay." He circled her and she felt his breath on her belly.  He was
right there and she'd been sweating and bleeding.  She was disgusting!
   "You smell good." To prove his point he nuzzled right in the bump of her
mound, brushed his nose back and forth in her pubic hair.  He eased down
and lay back between her spread legs, staring up, straight up where he'd
never seen her before.  Where no one had seen her since she was a little
girl.  "On your knees."
   She looked at herself in the mirror.  A single drop of blood trickled
down the inside of her thigh.
   "Maya," his low voice rumbled her name in warning.
   She had a couple seconds before he lost his patience with her.  The
first time she made him ask twice he'd smacked her bottom so hard - even
through her clothes - that she cried like a baby.  The second time, he put
his arm around her throat and growled out his frustrations with her
disobedience.
   So when Vix growled her name, she dropped to her knees as if he'd
snatched her down.  She preferred a happy Vix to a frustrated one every day
of the year.  She shivered as she felt the trickle of blood flowing from
her.
   "Just as I thought.  Everything about you is beautiful.  No one has seen
you, no one but me.  Is that still true?" He rubbed the backs of her thighs
and her ass, slowly massaging back and forth while he stared up into her
bloody pussy.
   "Yes."
   He took a deep breath before pulling her down to his lips.  She bit down
on her hand to keep from screaming.  She twitched, but didn't try to close
her legs or push him away.
   He placed one kiss after another on her pussy.  His tongue moved back
and forth.
   "Vix," she breathed.  "Vix, what are you doing?  Can't you," She panted
and went light headed as his tongue lapped at her.
   "How long before you have to be home?"
   "No one is going to miss me until the sun goes down," Maya was
optimistic about that one.  She always returned home at sundown, but no one
ever said they missed her.  "I can't go anywhere in the rain anyway."
   "I'm tasting you." He said before he went back to doing just that.
   "Is it gross?"
   "No.  Sweet and tart and coppery and," The rest was muffled as he licked
her again.  "Get up and lay on your back on my bed.  Hips on the edge,
spread your legs, wide." He stood up.  He was breathing heavy, his lips and
chin stained red.
   Maya closed her eyes.  She was a girl, naive in most things, but she
knew enough to figure he was about to put himself inside her.  Twelve was a
little young, but if Vix wanted her, she would let him have her.
   Her eyes shot open.  His mouth was back on her, and this time his tongue
was more insistent.  She began to feel strange, a heaviness her stomach. 
She tried to move, but he held her down.
   "There no one here," he said as he cupped her ass.  "Just you and me."
   "But I don't know if this is right."
   He bit her inner thigh and she screamed.  He looked positively mad, his
cheeks covered in her blood.  As if biting her was not punishment enough he
smacked her on the hip.  "There is no one here.  Just you and me.  Say it."
   "There no one here." She gasped.  She curled her fingers in his mass of
thick hair.  "Just you and me." She pulled his face toward her.  "Whatever
you want."
   Like a placated beast his eyelids lowered and his tongue led the way
back to her pussy.  "Tell me what you like."
   "How?" She gasped, "Um, that.  I like that." She felt her whole body
melt back into the bed.  "Lower?" And then all she could do was sigh.
   "All right, let's find something else you like."
   She lay there as the rain poured down while he discovered how best to
finger her, suck her, tongue her.
   "Does it disgust you that I liked the taste of your blood?" He'd walked
her into the bathroom.  He was drawing her a bath.
   "Shocked me." She was still naked.  He'd washed the blood from his face,
but not her thighs yet.  Even his sheets were stained.  "Can I see yours?"
   He stepped out of his briefs.
   She giggled.  "Yours is, ah ...  hovering."
   He pointed to the tub and she stepped into the bath.  He got in with her
and sat on the side.
   "Can I?" Her hand touched his knee, but nothing else.
   "Anything you want."
   "Yeah, but what do you want me to do?"
   "Relax."
   Her hands ran up and down his muscled thighs, looking at him more than
touching him.
   She put her hand around him and moved the skin back and forth a moment,
examined the solid rod of veins and muscle.  She touched the tip where the
liquid pooled, back down to his balls.  The hair there was soft and thick.
She rolled onto her knees and did the same thing he'd done to her, rubbed
her nose back and forth, took a deep breath.  He smelled ...  unlike
anything she knew.  Maya rested on his thigh and inhaled again.  The scent
made her belly flutter.
   She leaned forward and licked his shaft, kissed it.
   Vix put his hands on her head and guided her to take him in her mouth.
"Like a popsicle," he whispered.
   "I bite my popsicles."
   "Except that."
   She giggled and licked him, sucked on him.
   His hands tensed on her shoulders and then there was a thick liquid
spurting into her mouth.  She wasn't ready for that, not in the intelligent
way, but it didn't seem like pee.  Just some kind of liquid.  She drank it,
thinking, if he could drink her blood, she'd drink whatever this was.
   "Easy.  I'm sensitive, like you afterwards."
   Like her, afterwards, she gentled her tongue, let him go gently.
   "You're my beautiful treasure." He purred as he slipped into the bath
with her.
   Vix showered her with enough compliments to last her a life time.
   -_ Nightmares _-
   'I have only ever been your treasure.'
   She wrote the single line by the light of the moon outside her open
window.  She'd woke crying.  Time apart, learning about the world, other
people in it, she'd come to realize that her relationship with Vix was not
just weird, but down right unheard of.  She had kept him like a secret, not
letting anyone know the things they did, the conversations they had.
   Was she molested?  No.  Her dark relationship with Vix made her happy,
beautiful, better.  He was the sun in her darkness, the hope in her
despair.
   Each time Maya looked in the mirror she heard his soft proclamation:
beautiful.  She had changed a million ways since that day.  Would he
believe it still?
   In those days, Maya purposely played her father's inebriation against
her mother's fury and spent several nights with Vix, in his bed.  Each
deception had been worth it.  He held her and told her in fine details why
he thought she was beautiful, why her father made her hide.
   "He's afraid to see you as sexual creature, afraid you'll know what
power you hold."
   She had smirked to herself in the dark.  That was ridiculous.  He'd
never met her father.  He had not seen the hatred in his eyes, the disgust.
Her father thought she was ugly.  He was ashamed of her.
   If Vix hadn't warned her, then when her father changed, she would have
tuned right into his station.  Vix had saved her.
   Nights like this, Maya woke with a start, her heart racing and sweating,
thinking her father had picked the lock on her door while she slept, or
hearing him call out for her while she hid.
   'I have only ever been your treasure.'
   She read the note a final time before tearing it up.  She could see a
message like that pissing Vix off.  If only she had believed it then,
believed him, trusted him.
   Now she knew when he had lunch.  She propped her head on her hands and
stared out the moon and stars.  She was going to see him again, if he let
her.  She had to find him, and she had to say the perfect thing.
   -_ Abduction _-
   Maya wasn't sure what Vix was to her.  They never talked about their
relationship like that.  They just existed.  In many ways he was like her
older brother.  They relaxed with each other, read books, played games.  He
was like her best friend, listening to her problems, holding her when she
cried about her parents.  He was her boyfriend, showering her with
affection and love.
   It wasn't always a sexual thing, more childlike curiosity fused with
puberty.  Sex had a lot to do with their constant fascination with each
other - his fascination with her.  Vix would spend up to an hour just
looking at her, inspecting her body, palming her swelling breasts, tasting
her, smelling her - everywhere, from her pits to her pussy to her lips to
her back.
   One day they made a game out of who could make the other have the most
orgasms before sun down.  In a virginal way, as much as that counted.  They
used their mouths, hands, but he never penetrated her vagina or her rear
with his penis.  Not that summer, Maya liked to imagine that it would have
happened one day.  Her body was in transition, he had explained.  Not a
girl, but not yet a woman.
   She'd felt more in that summer than most women did in their life.  That
was clear to her now.
   Vix had plenty to watch as well.  He grew a little taller, leaner, his
muscles swelled.  He was catching up on lost time, looking like the
teenager he was.  For him, puberty hurt.  He said it felt like his skin was
ripping apart, his bones breaking.
   They were in her bedroom.  Her father was out hunting, mother working.
She wanted to show him her room.  He insisted he wouldn't be ashamed of her
house, but she was ashamed enough for them both.
   "Undress," said Maya.
   Vix tossed away his clothes without a second thought.  She took out the
lotion and massaged his skin, trying to soothe his aching body.
   "Does that help?"
   "Yes," he sighed.
   After her massage she sat between his spread legs and played with him,
his semi hard penis and balls.  She was going to work him to an orgasm,
relax him.  It was second nature to her whenever she saw him hard, the same
as he would have done if he noticed she was wet.  Her oiled fingers circled
his anus while her hand twisted up and down his shaft.
   "Now," he groaned.
   She leaned forward and caught his emission in her mouth, drank until he
was empty.
   "I want you on my face," he whispered as he caressed her cheek.
   She'd grabbed the edge of her shirt when the front door opened and
slammed shut.
   "Maya!" Her father bellowed.  "Maya, are you here?"
   "Ignore him," Vix sat up in her bed and stared daggers at her door.  He
motioned for her to get back on the bed with him.  He didn't seem surprised
by her father's sudden arrival.
   She spun up with anxiety.  He needed to get out.  She needed to get more
clothes on.  How was she going to explain this to her dad?
   "There's no one here." He clenched his jaw, his eyes went hard, violent.
"Just you and me."
   Maya made a tiny gasp.  If he felt that way about her parents, then
maybe his were home all that time and could hear her.  She was going to get
in trouble.  Her father would hurt him.
   "Get out!" Maya hissed.  "Get the fuck out, Vix, now!" She pulled him
out of her bed and pushed him and his clothes toward her window.
   Vix grabbed her by the throat and slammed her against the wall.  "Think
you can talk to me that way?"
   "Maya?" Her father knocked on her bedroom door.  "You in there?"
   "Please, Vix." Her eyes watered with fear.  "Go."
   "You better make it up to me." He snatched his clothes up and left her
window naked as the day he was born.
   "I'm not dressed," Maya said.  She pulled on her robe and opened the
door.
   "Get fucking dressed.  We need to hurry.  Come on."
   "Go?  What happened?"
   "It's your mother.  Let's move, damn it!"
   She grabbed for her shoes and coat.  "What?  What happened?"
   He dragged her out to his truck and that was the last she'd seen of her
mother and Vix for two years.
   -_ Loss Time _-
   Maya folded the note and put it in her back pocket.  Her morning classes
passed in a blur, her whole mind on lunch and what she was about to do.
   He wasn't in the lunch room, but outside, in the thick of the senior
section, sitting on a bench, reading.
   Maya marched over, the note in the palm of her hand.
   "Hey!" A guy whistled.
   She looked up at the older boy.
   "You're lost.  Turn the fuck around new fish."
   She ignored him and kept walking toward Vix.  He didn't look up, didn't
notice her.  She put the note in his book.  Disturbed him while he was
reading.
   "Obviously you can't fucking listen and you're suicidal.  Get the fuck
out of here and don't stick your hand in the lion cage."
   They were trying to get her away from him.
   That was okay.  She did what she needed to.  "I'm going."
   She never made the first step.  Vix yanked on her bag, pulled her down
to the bench.  He moved her body as if she were a rag doll.  As if the past
two years hadn't happened, she was as pliant and quiet, until she was
sitting between his legs, leaning against his chest.
   He looked up, but didn't say anything.  Four pairs of feet moved away
from the bench.  The area had been loud, full of laughter and jokes and
music, but it seemed oddly quiet now, or maybe she'd tuned them out.
   The note was still there, folded.  He lifted the book and opened it.
   Her heart thundered as he read each word out loud.
   "I will make it up to you.  I have only ever been your treasure, and you
would have been my dragon if I'd only let you.  If I had it to do all over
again, I'd choose you.  The first time, every time.  There is no one here.
Just you and me.  Forever." He folded the note and then closed the book in
his hand.  "Did he hurt you?"
   "No, but he would have.  He started by trying to tell me I didn't have
to hide from him, that he wanted to be a better father.  Really turned on
the charm, but I kept hiding, I wasn't fooled.  Then he started to get
angry.  I reached out to the police, but that took some convincing. 
Anyway, I was in a foster home while they went to court." She sighed
heavily.  On her next breath she smelled the heat and musk of his body. 
When you spend an entire summer in someone's arms, they are hard to forget.
   "How are you going to make it up to me?"
   "I already have."
   He chuckled, but at the last moment his voice broke.  "Fucking how,
Maya?"
   Two years gone between them but she felt more strongly for him now than
she ever had.  "I have only ever been your treasure.  No one has touched me
since you."
   "Oh, great.  You're as naive as the day you rejected me.  What else?"
   "I love you."
   He laughed, low and private.  "I went insane, Maya.  I was in the dark
without you.  You're still young and I'm much older.  Maybe you need to
give a few other guys a spin first, make sure I haven't fucked you over."
   "It's too late for that.  You have," she leaned her head back and looked
at him.  "I want you to finish me off.  Unless."
   "Unless?"
   "Well, I'd considered that maybe, that you ...  you've changed your mind
about me or ...  I guess there are other girls."
   "Fucking hell, Maya." He leaned down and nipped her on the ear.  "You're
right.  I've changed.  I want--"
   The bell rang signaling the end of the lunch period.
   "There's no one here," she whispered.
   "Just me and you." He finished.  As if he'd slipped into a warm bath she
felt the tension leave his body.  "When can I see you?"
   "Tomorrow." As today was Friday, that made it an easy decision.
   "Where can I pick you up?"
   She gave him her address and her cellphone.  "I have it off until I get
home though.  My mother thinks you're a girl."
   "We'll correct her on that later.  Dress comfortably.  Nothing
restrictive."
   "Easy to remove?"
   "Yes," he angled his head lower to kiss her neck.  "I missed you.  Every
hour of every day for every year I have lived without you, I missed you."
   "What if I'm not what you remember?"
   "Look at me."
   They stared at each other for at least a minute before he nodded.
   "You are my woman," he kissed her on the lips.  "My confidant, my best
friend, my lover." He accented each statement with another kiss.  "Aren't
you?"
   "Yes."
   "I've always been in your mind."
   She blushed and kissed him this time.  "Yes."
   He smiled and helped her to stand.  "I'll see you tomorrow."
   <->
   Epilogue: Vix has been a recurring character over several stories since
2011, but didn't come together until 2013.  I adore the creepy, intense boy
that envelops a young girl's whole world.
Written: June 2011
   Contact: nysidra at hot mail dot com
  
Touched