Simon and Tamara | Backdated to August 31st

[ax_touchstone]

Simon gives Tamara another backrub, but this time it comes with a kiss or two. Most awkward make-out session ever.

Tamara was smiling as she headed down to the infirmary. Ever since she and Simon had worked out this little arrangement, she'd actually started enjoying her trips down here. No more bandages, and only basic poking and prodding and measuring the growth of her wings...

And, courtesy of Simon's very talented hands, her wings had never felt so good. She'd kept his mutant power secret, even though she thought it was a dumb secret, but figured she wouldn't have outed him if he were gay and wanted it kept quiet, so the same rules probably applied to being a mutant. And even though he had no idea how to talk like a normal person, under that, he wasn't such bad company, it turned out.

...and not too bad to look at, either.

So she had her pulled into two low pigtails (cute and functional, kept her long brown hair off her back), her makeup was perfect and dramatic, and a new shirt featuring a colorful skeletal ribcage was the center of her wardrobe today (hacked into a haltertop, of course). She'd texted Simon to let him know she was on her way, but didn't see him right away as she stepped into the infirmary. "Simon?"

Simon stepped out and gave her a half-wave from one of the exam rooms. He certainly didn't mind helping to alleviate her pain - it was one thing that his powers were good for, in terms of helping him to identifying where the ache was originating. Hell, if he was was refused medical school, he could probably make a wonderful masseuse or physical therapist. "Here. I got a table set up."

"Awesome," Tamara said, tucking her wings back as she stepped past him into the room. She'd opted for flats (heels were murder on all those stairs) so aside from the wings, it was easy to slip past him. She turned, stepping backwards toward the table so she could show off the new shirt. "Like my latest project?"

"It, uh, looks like you tailored it well to fit around the wings, yes," Simon told her, unsure what else he was supposed to say. He closed the door for a little privacy (because the massage sessions weren't exactly a publicly known thing), then turned to the sink to wash his hands. "Not exactly anatomically correct."

"Awww, I thought you'd like it!" Tamara was teasing him, pouting playfully, but was honestly completely unsurprised by that response. It was very Simon.

Simon glanced over, side-eying her, but realizing he was being teased, at the very least. "How has your pain been?"

Tamara rolled her eyes and assumed the position - laying on her belly, wings stretching down to the floor, head resting on her arms - and sighed. "It's been worse, but that's because I've been working them. I can mostly control them and like, flap them? I'm trying to get them stronger now."

She was so tiny, sometimes Simon wondered that she was able to control them at all. But then again, her small frame might someday help her with flight. He stepped over and ran his fingers along the ridge of one wing. "What kinds of exercises?"

Tamara started to relax even at that first touch. "Just... things to mimic flying. It stretches them out, and all those big muscles are definitely getting stronger. It's killing my back though."

"Don't push yourself too hard," Simon warned her, though he could already feel that she was fine. A little stressed, but nothing that could possibly injure her.

"I know, I know...," she grumbled back to him. Everyone had been telling her that for months now. "I'm not actually trying to fly yet or anything, promise." Even though watching Shen and Warren was killing her.

He worked his way down the small muscles in her back, working the tension from a few of them. "You've been watching Warren and Shen, haven't you?" Simon surmised.

"How can I not?" she said, though her pout was cut off with a happy "mmmm" sound as he found a good spot. "Mm, right there..."

Simon was about to tell her that yes, he knew right there, that was his power, but held it in. "Honestly, I wouldn't want to experiment with my power that high up off of the ground."

"Mm, that feels good," she mumbled, wiggling just a little to stretch the muscles he was rubbing at. "And yeah, no kidding. I crashed Warren and I once, and if it hadn't been in the lake..." She didn't even want think how bad those injuries could've been.

Simon's hands paused. "What?"

Tamara glanced over her shoulder at him, surprised. "Warren took me flying once. It was freakin' amazing, but my right wing got tired of being held in. It popped out like a sail and we went down in the lake. Why?"

"You both could have been killed," he frowned.

"Your optimism is definitely one of your best features, y'know that?" Seriously, Tamara thought as she raised an eyebrow, it was a good thing he was pretty... It was an awkward and mildly painful angle to be looking at him, but well, conversation.

"I swear to god, you people do not take this seriously enough," Simon groused, going back to easing out the tension in her back.

"Relax," Tamara chided. She took her own advice and settled her head on her arms again. "We're both fine. I had a sore wing, and he got lake plants in his feathers - nothing worse than that. And if we'd been up higher, he would've had time to course-correct; we were just so close to the lake already that there wasn't any time." Which was... mostly true. If it had happened while they were flying low over the trees? Shit, that would've been a disaster.

She hummed again as his clever fingers found another perfect spot. "You should try it sometime. Flying, I mean. It's so amazing... totally worth the occasional unplanned swim."

"Absolutely not," Simon huffed softly. "No one will ever get me in the air like that."

"Scared of heights, huh?" Tamara teased him, smirking against her arm. "Do you ever have any fun?"

"Your kind of fun or my kind of fun?" he asked dryly.

"Ohmygod, what even is your idea of fun?" She sounded exasperated, but she was smiling.

"Apparently not yours," he shot back, and for the first time actually sounded playful himself.

"Some things are just universally acknowledged as being fun, Simon," Tamara replied with a little laugh. "Roller coasters. Action movies. Dancing. Making out." Flirting with a hot boy while he gives you the perfect massage. "To name a few, anyway."

Simon frowned slightly. He'd never found any of those fun. Except for the making out part, which he had no experience in. He shifted to the other side and helped flex her wing, checking that she was now much less tense than she had been. "If you say so."

Tamara really hoped he could feel her rolling her eyes (he probably could, right?). "Don't tell me: you've never even been on a roller coaster, have you?"

"Of course I have," Simon scoffed. River had made him. He'd hated it. "Once."

Tamara laughed, accustomed to the answering pain that rippled through her wings and back. Laughing was worth it. "Someone dared you, didn't they?"


"My sister," Simon agreed begrudgingly, though he frowned at the ripple of pain he felt alongside that laugh.

"So it's not genetic, then?" Tamara asked, feigning innocence.

"My power? No. Not yet, at least," Simon told her, but frowned. God, he hoped not. He hoped he could save her from that persecution.

"No, not that," Tamara replied, barely holding back another laugh. "The aversion to fun."

Simon snorted softly. "You would like my sister, yes."

"Might like you too, if you'd lighten up some," Tamara teased him, wiggling her body a little under his hands.

Simon blinked at the wriggling, then blinked again as something else came through his touch. He pulled his hands away immediately, startled. "O...oh."

"What?" Tamara turned to look at him, confused. She didn't even have her electricity going, she couldn't have zapped him, right? "Is something wrong? If you got shocked, I swear it's just static, it wasn't me."

"No, I." Simon paused. How did he tell someone that he could feel their physical attraction? With her serotonin lowering, dopamine starting to produce more - even the way she'd moved into his hands - they were all tell-tale signs of... "Maybe, maybe we should pull back on these sessions. I would not want mislead you about my intentions here."

Tamara was giving him her best Unimpressed face, chin propped up on one hand as she peered back at him. "Dude, I literally just told you to lighten up. Would you chill?" He'd stopped talking like a dictionary for a little while there and everything...

He frowned. "You know I'm doing this to help the pain in your back, right?"

"Obviously," Tamara replied flatly. He was incredibly dutiful and sweet, if nothing else. "But that doesn't mean it can't be fun too, right? I'm not that bad to hang out with, am I?" ...probably she shouldn't have asked, come to think of it, but oh well.

"I. I should have been clear," Simon realized, reaching for a stool to sit and pull closer to her. "When I touch you...I feel everything. Not...not just your pain. I feel all of your physiological ah- responses. Well, and much more than that too - vital signs, organ functions, DNA, hormones."

Rolling her eyes, Tamara sat up too, not wanting to feel like he was talking down to her (at least literally). It put them roughly knee-to-knee.

By the time he finished, she was staring at him open-mouthed. She shut her eyes and shook her head a little. "Right. Okay. Putting a pin in the whole I can feel your DNA bit, 'cause I wanna come back to that -- you freaked out because my body...?"

He cringed a little. "I'm sorry. I should have told you. My power is extensive in the way of biological detection. When you first found out, I was so freaked out, I didn't fully explain."

He hadn't answered her question, but she was smart, and suddenly it clicked. She'd started enjoying things just a little more than the usual, enjoying him a bit more. She tried to suppress a smirk, raising an eyebrow at him. "What, so I started enjoying myself just a little bit wrong and you panicked?" Then she frowned at him, suddenly really insulted. "What, you don't like me? You think I'm gross or something?"

"What?" Simon stared at her. "No. God, no."

"Then what?" she asked, pouting slightly and still on the defensive.

Simon looked lost. He had fuck all experience with people in general, let alone someone who was attracted to him. In fact, until very recently, the only one to comment on his looks had been his mother. He had absolutely no idea what to say.

Wow. Just... wow. Boy was hopeless. "Seriously, was it that bad? Or... did you just think I'd think you were making a move on me, under the guise of helping?"

"That. The last one," Simon agreed.

She rolled her eyes at him. "Oh come on, I made that mistake the first time, but you've been a total gentleman." Almost infuriatingly so, sometimes.

"Oh." Simon relaxed a little. "Good. You have to understand that no matter what you look like, I would want to help you."

"How magnanimous," Tamara replied dryly. "But that's not what I was asking before, y'know." She flared her wings briefly behind her, then tucked them close to her back. "When you're not playing the dashing gentleman-doctor...?"

He kind of looked at her with a frown, uncertain where she was going with this. When wasn't he playing doctor these days?

Tamara sighed, shaking her head. So fishing for compliments - or even assurances that he didn't think she was gross - was apparently not the way to go here. This school seemed to be filled with really smart idiot boys. Pretty ones.

Leaning forward, she reached up and ruffled his hair, gently mussing it up, smiling at the effect. "Seriously, Simon, you have gotta unwind..." Then, on impulse, she leaned all the way in and pressed her lips to his, just lightly, to see what he'd do.

It wasn't the kiss - well, it was - that struck Simon dumb. It was the fact that, as usual, Warren was right, and the feedback of both his sensation of the kiss as well as his power's input of everything that Tamara was feeling about kissing him was entirely overwhelming to his senses. He might as well have been hearing the squealing noise from a microphone. His brain couldn't distinguish between what it was feeling, and by extension, he couldn't properly react. Instead, his body's response was reactionary and he found himself leaning into the kiss, almost mimicking her movements.

He didn't immediately pull back, which Tamara took as her cue to keep going. Her hand was still in his hair, so she played with it, kissing him positively gently. He was wound so tight (she was kind of shocked he hadn't pushed her off him, honestly), even she knew not to move too quick.

Which, whatever. God, it just felt so good to be kissing someone again, even if she was going slow. With a little sigh, her lips opened to his, and invitation to more if he wanted it. (...okay, and she was hoping he wanted it, what she really needed was a hot and heavy makeout, but anything was better than nothing.)

Her lips parted and fingers played with his hair and his hand started to come up...then he pulled back hard enough to nearly fall off of the stool, grabbing for the counter so he wouldn't crack his head on it. "No. No. No, that's not-"

Tamara let him go with a little huff. So much for unwinding. Did he always need to be so...? "What?" she asked, just a little petulant.

"That's not what - what I'm looking for," Simon told her once he'd straightened himself. "I mean, don't get me wrong - you are...very aesthetically pleasing..."

"Ohmygod, stop talking," Tamara said, covering her eyes as she shook her head. She'd half expected this, but still, this was the first time a guy had stopped kissing her. She peeked over her fingers at him. "Seriously Simon? It's just a kiss."

He eyed her a moment, then a beat more, the silence starting to pile up until he asked, "Can I talk again?"

Tamara took her hand from her face, gesturing for him to go for it.

"What do you mean, 'just a kiss'?" he asked. "From my observation, kissing usually leads to a lot more."

"I mean," Tamara said, leaning in, just in case he'd change his mind. "No strings, just... a kiss. For fun. Because it feels good." She smiled at him, tongue wetting her lips. "And it felt good, didn't it?"

"Hard to tell," Simon answered, then quickly corrected, "What I mean is that my power formed a feedback loop. I was feeling what you were feeling, and what I was feeling..."

"Sounds nice," Tamara pointed out, still just a little too close to him. God, it was like flirting with a computer - but she'd come this far, she wasn't giving up yet. "You can try again, if you want."

"For...fun?" he asked suspiciously. Was that even a thing?

That made her smile genuinely, just a bit of mischief in her eyes. "Yes. Fun. And I won't tell anyone if you won't."

"So...you don't want me to tell anyone," Simon translated.

"I'm already not telling people about coming down here," she pointed out, raising an eyebrow at him. Wasn't that what he'd want? "I'm keeping your secret, promise."

And okay, maybe she wouldn't want people thinking she wanted to makeout with the flatscan studying them, but that just went hand in hand with him wanting to keep his mutant secret.

...and secrets could be lots of fun, after all.

Oh. Right. She didn't want to be seen kissing the school's hated flatscan, Simon realized. Somehow, that should have soured him to the idea. But then again, if he wanted to get a handle on that feedback loop, a little practice wouldn't hurt. Kissing for fun. "You're sure it doesn't mean anything?"

Tamara smiled, sensing victory. "No strings attached."

He eyed her, but nodded. "Alright. For a moment. Then we finish up with your back."

"Deal," Tamara agreed, because that was definitely a win-win for her. She reached for his shirt to tug him forward, thrilled with this success and deciding there might be hope for Simon yet. Y'know, with a bit of her corrupting influence.

Not the shirt was Simon's first thought, but then his lips were gliding against hers and thinking became extremely difficult. Sensation echoed between them, along with the warmth of breath and the racing hormones.

Tamara didn't hold back this time, kissing him soundly and pulling him closer, this time with a hand on the back of his neck. He was clearly a novice, but he had good instincts (or maybe he was just picking up hers? Either way, good). She sucked lightly on his lower lip, trying to get a proper reaction from him.

He breathed out a quiet sigh, then reached up, fingers ghosting into her hair, across the back of her neck, intentionally tripping little nerve bundles that would react, then ping back at him, setting off his own. It was...a little masturbatory, but in the moment, he didn't quite care. Theories had to be tested, right?

Tamara hummed happily into the kiss, this time biting softly on his lip, then tracing it with her tongue. Rewarding him.

Simon had to lean back for a second, taking a breath. It was only a little kiss, he realized, but learning how to handle the feedback was intense.

Tamara started to follow on instinct, but let him pull away, eyes opening to scan his face. She smirked at him. "Good?"

"It's a new sensation," Simon worked out. "Because I'm new to it, the feedback is more intense. When I'm working on your back, I must...somehow tune it out because I already know what muscle massages feel like."

...seriously? "Not really what I was asking, actually."

He blinked at her. "Oh. I mean. Yes?"

"Wow. That... might be the worst review I ever got." Tamara let him go, letting her hands settle in her lap instead, pouting slightly.

A crinkle appeared in Simon's brow. "Review?"

"It's a joke," she replied flatly, frowning just slightly and worrying her lip. "And most guys I kiss don't stop to have conversations..." What was wrong - didn't he think she was hot? Had the kiss been bad? She'd had a decent amount of practice, but only back home -- shit, did she kiss like some kind of small town bumpkin??

He reached up and pinched at the bridge of his nose for a moment. "So are you angry that I'm talking or that I didn't fall to my knees?"

That made her smirk again. "That would've been really forward of you," she teased, mind gone dirty. "But lighten up, I'm not mad, just..." She ran a hand through her hair. "Self-conscious, I guess."

He sighed. "I get it. I'm not fun, and I'm new to this whole 'making out for kicks' business. I've also got a power that's getting in the way. But none of this has to do with you. Like I said, you're beautiful."

Tamara was smiling at him, just a little crookedly. "Well you're no good at the 'for kicks' bit, but I liked the kissing part. In case you were wondering." Practice would make perfect, but honestly, they'd probably hit the limit for today. Leaning back a bit, she looked at him curiously. "Was your power really that much trouble? What was it like?"

"Like two songs playing at once in your ear, and never quite syncing up," Simon rubbed his head. "But I'll figure out how to start blocking that out. In the meantime, maybe we should end things for today."

Nodding, and suppressing a grin at his language, Tamara scooted off the table, mindful of her wings. "Practice makes perfect," she reminded him with a little wink. "Let me know if you want to practice again sometime."

"Uh. Yeah," he nodded, half-smiling. "Let me think about it."

Halfway to the door, Tamara glanced over her shoulder (and moved a wing to clear her line of sight). "I can still come back for wing rubs, right?"

Simon distractedly looked up, then nodded. "Yes. Of course. Until your pain is under control, I'm happy to help."

"Cool, thanks. See ya!" Tamara gave a little wave and was out the door.

Comments

[ax_storm]

Ahahaha omg Tamara. <3 <3 <3

Shen's facepalming ten ways to Sunday, though. ;)

[ax_angel]

Oh my god Lolol everything about this was so fucking funny I don't even know where to start...

(Also Warren is highly amused that he's always right. Probably a first.)

[ax_dragoness]

Tamara's just like "omfg what do I need to do to get a guy to makeout with me?!" Is she not hot? Flirtatious? Most guys she's kissed in the past have been thrilled!!

What is wrong with all these mutant boys?!??

[ax_angel]

The answer: they're a fucking mess.

:DDDDDD