Just over another 10k words this weekend!  As I said to a friend of mine, I feel like a wrung-out dish rag.  But, once I’d the key – the sight – from late Friday, it was so easy!  Part of my last post was just that:  Chris and Cat closing the gap between them.  What I wrote since then was the 3+1 times they made love (slightly different than having sex), although I only covered #1 and #+1 in detail.  That, plus another one of Chris’ recall-dreams of his time at Neuroi Corporation, this time, talking with his kid sister, Maya, made for a fantastic weekend!

Anton is sleeping with Chris & Cat’s next door neighbor; that’s complicated!  And he’ll be giving them a tour of the northern ‘no-go’ zones around Camp Pendleton.  The civilians of San Diego think the Mexican Army killed about 100k coming south from the 19MM in the LA Basin.  Truth is hard, sometimes.

After what he sees, it finally occurs to Chris to reach out to experts beyond him:  even machines suffer from the “if I’m good at this, I’m good at everything!” mental illness.  The moment he does, he’s going to realize just what he’s overlooked, and how close he and his beloved are to an horrible, violent death.

This is SO COOL!

PS It was pointed out to me by someone in RealLife that my ‘below the folds’ are all banal (my word, not theirs), not ‘the good stuff!’  Well, duh!  I welcome everyone into the world I’m making, but this is work, and I want to be paid for it.  ‘Defiant’ was, and is, for free.  Intellectual property is worth at least, if not more, than physical property.  Example:  a water pump is worth money; learning how to make a water pump, one or two orders of magnitude more.   To continue the analogy, my snippets, in and of themselves, are slightly entertaining.  I hope, once complete and edited, y’all think that they plus the other 45k words are worth US$7.

Thank you so much for reading!

There were cooking sounds from the kitchen. She had left her watch on the side table when she’d changed earlier, but they’d almost knock it over during their second go. She got out of bed and found it. It was just after six; the whole afternoon, gone!

My very best afternoon, ever!

For just a moment she considered walking out naked, unashamed. But she didn’t want to press her luck. She wrapped up in a towel, but this time didn’t mind if it fell. She opened the door to the main room.

Chris wore a tee shirt and some briefs. A part of Cat’s mind had hoped at least he was naked, but as he was stir-frying dinner, that was asking too much of her love – !

That brought her up short. She didn’t even hear him say, “Hello, Cat! Dinner’s almost ready! Cat?”

Of course I do, she thought, this was never just about sex.

“Cat?” He was right in front of her. “Are you okay?”

She nodded and leaned up to kiss him.

“I love you, Chris.”

“And I, you, Cat.”

He turned back to the stove. That was a little underwhelming. No: guys are different. Hey, she realized, both of the guys I’ve slept with are foreigners! I wonder what that says about me?

“No hurry, Chris.” She moved to put the coffee table back into place. “No hurry at all.”

Dinner together was usually quiet, Cat thought, so she tried to force some conversation.

“Chris,” she asked, taking another half-scoop of stir-fry onto her plate, “what was Anton doing here? Something about a message?”

“Mmm.” He swallowed before replying, older about her culture. “I’d sent him a question about the no-go zone… don’t worry! I didn’t mention that you’d told me anything! I said ‘what I heard on campus.’”

“Oh, good!” She caressed his face with her left hand. “I don’t mind running with you, but begin deported alone? Not so much!”

In a smooth motion that was still a blur to her eyes, his chopsticks were down and her hand in his right. He kissed her fingers, one, two, three, four. Cat shivered.

“Then I’d come with you. You’ll never be rid of me, Cat.”

“The cheesy lines are back!” She jerked her hand away. “We live together, eat together… love each other…”

He voice kept dropping.

“…it’s like… we’re… married, or something.” Another bite.

“Okay.”

The fried rice and veggies made an unexpected reappearance onto her plate and floor.

“Ch… Chris…!”

“You said it earlier: let’s chose life, not death. You can call that priest we met, right and… Cat?”

Her eyes swam with tears, but none yet escaped.

“Eeeeee…ahhhh……ahh…hah..hgn…hgn…hgn…!” Now they did, as she held him, crying on and on.

“<Really?>” Cat asked, using what little Japanese she knew.

“<Really.>” Why was she overwrought about this? Another hug, then she shoveled the last of her food into her mouth.

“I’m for bed! Join me when you’re ready!” She stood and moved towards the door.

What?

She paused at the door.

“This is absolutely the best day of my life! I want to sleep before anything happens to mar it!” She took one step, stopped. “Like, for example, you not coming to bed!”

“Of course, Cat,” Chris said softly to an empty room.

Truly, she was gently snoring when he moved from the bathroom to the far side of her – their – bed. She woke a little when he eased in. He put his left arm around her. Into his chest was her murmur: “…ove you…”

Chris dreamed.