NOTE FROM WEB PAGE MAINTAINER, DAVE PISTONE: This story contains words and phrases which some readers may find offending. It also deals with the natural processes of growing up in a frank way. Reader discretion is advised and I voluntarily give this a PG-13 rating due to it's content. However, let me stress right now that IT IS NOT AN X RATED SEX STORY SO SEGA BACK OFF! ^^^ You may now read. =============================================================================== TAIL by Lex Concord That day, on the elevator, Tails finally succeeded in bringing Sonic to a dead stop. "What?" Sonic asked. Tails was watching him carefully. "I said, what were you and Sally doing out in the equipment shed?" The elevator squeaked and rattled faintly as it descended into Knothole. "What?" Sonic asked again. "I mean, which, uh, when?" "Last night." Sonic laughed. "Well, nothin', little buddy." He was suddenly a very nervous hedgehog. "What makes you think, uh--" "I heard Rotor and Bunnie~ talking," Tails said, not-quite-innocent, leaning against the railing. He folded his arms. "Rotor said the bench was a mess again and Bunnie~ said you guys were there again and you never cleaned up, and he said, wonder why; and she said why don't you put up a camera and get some pictures, and they laughed. So what were you guys doing?" Sonic had walked over to the other side of the elevator. As it jolted a bit on its worn guides, he put his gloved hands on the railings. It wasn't from losing balance. "Oh, well," Sonic mumbled, "researching, you know, making something." "What?" "It's secret, little buddy. Top Secret." "What's that mean?" "That means you can't see it, little buddy," Sonic said, and his gloved fingers drummed on the rail. "But you always said when I grew up I'd be like you guys," Tails said, just to keep the argument going. "When do I get to see the secret stuff you guys do? It isn't fair, is it?" "Someday, big guy. I promise." Tails felt bad, partly because he wasn't getting anywhere, but mostly because his hero was acting like a kid. Or rather, like HE was a kid. Today Tails had decided to stop pretending that. No matter what Sally said. "OK," he said, carefully keeping the disingenuous tone. "I guess when you're finished, huh Sonic? Can I see it then?" Sonic looked around and had to raise his eyes to look his "little buddy" in the eye. They were the same height. "Yeah, buddy," he managed. "Anytime now." "OK," Tails said. The elevator stopped at the bottom, and Sonic vanished so quickly Tails couldn't even return his wave. He looked at the ground and wondered where thoughts came from, and why his were so dark lately. The sun had already set over Knothole, but Antoine squinted anyway. "What ees it exactly, zis 'man-to-man' talk, Meester Prower?" "You know," said Tails, who hated it when Antoine addressed him formally. "Man to man. You know." "W-e-l-l," Antoine puckered, "if you mean what I theenk it is, you are speaking to ze right man for ze job." He cracked his knuckles and twirled his mustache; Tails could hear the hiss of his ego inflating. "I am assumed that you speak of ze, well, of your -- development." Tails clasped his fingers and looked down at his body. "Well, I've been growing." "I will say," Antoine said. "You have growing like there is no tomorrow these few months, no? Look at you! You are taller than I! And Sally cannot keep you in clothes. Three new pairs of shoes in a year!" "Yeah," Tails was annoyed about that. "Gloves too." He felt distinctly uncool without his shoes. "Sally's sure takin' her time." "Surely she feels it is better to wait for it to stop. Does it hurt?" "What?" "Ze growing." "Uh, yeah." He had woken up dozens of times that year, racked with pains in his bones. His hands ached and he felt like throwing up. Bunnie had called him Stretch Marks, until he made her stop. "Both your tails, yours, ze one of mine you have, also growing, as well ... You do not even fit ze bed any more, no?" "No." His back hurt. He scratched his stomach. He was hungry. He was always hungry. "And all zis time other parts, as well, have been, er, growing." Antoine scratched his head. "Er, did Sally tell you to come to me?" "No." He stopped scratching. "Oh. Ah. Does zis mean -- well, is zis an .. unauthorized visit?" Tails blinked. "Huh?" "W-e-l-l," Antoine hemmed, "I would not wish to do ze anything without ze Princess's approval, no? Nothing that would adversely affect your ... upbringing." Oh, no. "Please!" He sounded plaintive, but he couldn't help it. "Please? You promised..." "I did not promise." "I gotta learn this stuff somewhere! I don't want to ask _Rotor_." "Why not ask Sonic?" Antoine suggested. "I did. Forget that." Antoine was about to make some other remark, but he stopped and regarded Tails narrowly. "You went to ze hedgehog first, did you?" "Yeah." "Why?" He didn't know why, but he sensed he had just screwed up. He shrugged. "I dunno." "Is he more -- _masculine_ then I, perhaps?" "Well... I mean, he's always been --" "Well." Antoine stood up. "In zat case, if my services are not required--" "Aw, c'mon!" Tails was truly disgusted. "You just said I should try him next..." "Indeed. Try him again, won't you?" Antoine rose stiffly and moved off. Tails stared after him with lowered lids. He decided blasphemy was called for. "Prick," he muttered. "Rotor?" Rotor slid a drawer shut in his workbench. "Who is it?" "Nobody," said Tails. He came in from the dark outside. Rotor relaxed. He picked up a welder and a mask and moved over to something clamped in a vise. "What's up, Tails?" Tails shut his eyes against the glare as the torch ignited. He felt even worse than before. He had gone zero for two, and now, he felt sure, zero for three was coming up. Rotor was, as far as Tails could tell, more immature than he was. Rotor played the torch over the joint expertly. Tails waited until it was off, then asked directly, "Mind if we have a man-to-man talk?" "Sure," Rotor said equably. "What about?" "Well, me." Rotor raised his mask and peered at Tails. "Why?" "Well, I just want to..." Tails trailed off. He'd rehearsed this with Sonic and Antoine, but Rotor? "I just want to ... I need to be ready. Know some stuff," he finished lamely. "For what?" "For... you know. For when I grow up." "Well," Rotor said in his slow, matter-of-fact, infuriating way, "looks like you've already grown up, Tails." "Not totally... I mean, don't you ever, you know, get, uh..." Rotor just stared at him. Tails fought off the unexpected embarrassment. He tried again. "Look ... you have to do repair work on Bunnie~ all the time ... On her limbs, you know?" "Sure." "Well... up close to her, like that, don't you ever, you know, get to ... like her?" It sounded so lame, but he didn't have the words. "'Like' her?" "You know. Want to ... think about her?" "How?" "In ... bed." Rotor thought about it. "Do you?" he asked. "No," said Tails immediately. "What about Sally?" "NO!" There was a pause. Tails felt bad about yelling at Rotor, but he seemed unaffected. Rotor scratched his chin. "You know, you've been acting kind of down lately," he offered. "Is that what you mean? You're feeling bad?" "Sort of." "Well, when I was your age I had some problems like that. I didn't want to wake up, felt bad sometimes. Not too bad, though." "What'd you do?" "Nothin'. It went away." "How long?" "Maybe a few months." He shrugged. "I don't really remember. The fighting was really bad, they was just sweeping over everything." He summed up months of horror as if it had been a brief rainstorm. "So I was kind of distracted. I had to learn tech stuff real fast, so I didn't have time for anything else..." "I feel bad sometimes," Tails said suddenly. "When?" "Right now. I mean, most of the time." "I don't," said Rotor. "I never feel that bad, really. Maybe it's different for me. I'm a machine talent, you know. NICOLE says I'm abnormal," he added cheerfully. "If you felt like I feel," said Tails with a heavy sigh, "you'd remember." "Yeah, probably," said Rotor. "Sorry I can't help you more. Did you talk to Bunnie~ about it? She's always real cheerful, real up all the time." Tails just glared at him. "She has midnight watch, so she's asleep yet, but..." Rotor noticed Tails' expression. "Oh. Man-to-man. Right." He tapped a tusk. "Well, maybe NICOLE has a male personality interface. She's got some old psych programs I could try out on you. It'd be good research." "No, thanks." Tails got up to go. "Well, g'night," said Rotor, not offended. "Try Sally. She's your Mom, right?" "No, she isn't." He shrugged again. "Close enough." And he turned back to his work. _Strike three_, Tails thought, and he wiped away a sudden, inexplicable tear. It was still hot out, and he was still feeling depressed when he got into bed. He knew he had to be in bed before midnight, because if he didn't, Sally might gently "suggest" he go to bed now. He couldn't bear that. No; that was wrong -- he couldn't STAND it. He also had an erection, and it rubbed against the sheets. It just made him mad. He willed it to go away, and it did. On cue, Sally walked in without knocking. She started tucking him in. "How about a story?" she asked brightly. He was startled at the cold wave of hatred that washed through him at her patronizing words. He rolled over and gave her the evil eye. Sensing his anger, she retreated. "I just thought you looked down in the dumps, honey. Are you?" "No." He rolled over again so he was facing the wall. She patted the comforter. "Don't you want to talk about it? You know you can talk to me about _anything_ you want." Tails was silent. He knew she was right; if he came right out and told her what was on his mind, she'd answer all his questions. But... he couldn't bring himself to. It would be like -- like thinking of his mother, and getting excited about it -- yuck. On cue, his erection started to come back. His heart sank. Whatever chance he had to pose the question that night was gone. "Honey?" "I'm OK, Sally," he mumbled, feigning sleepiness. "You sure? Are you having growing pains again?" He almost smiled. "No, Mom. I'm fine." If she noticed what he'd called her, she didn't mention it. She stood and went to the doorway. He could feel her standing there, watching him. The thought of her in the doorway, silhouetted in the light, made him feel prickly. Then she turned out the light and closed the door. For a while he lay there, waiting for sleep to come. But it didn't, and his erection didn't go away, either. It was one of those spontaneous bones that came and went as it liked. The only way to get rid of it was to ignore it, but there was nothing else to focus his attention on. The room was deathly quiet. It was hot, too hot for blankets anyway. He kicked off the comforter and tossed and turned under the sheet. No way was he going to sleep for a while. He got out of bed and sat up. His head hurt. He had never felt so black and blue at the same time. And this wasn't a rational bad feeling like when he knew his parents were gone forever. That was a black hole in his heart. This was worse, a hard lump in his head, a dark voice in his ear, a burning cloud between his eyes that stopped thought. He slapped at the sides of his face, as though trying to dislodge mud-colored glasses. It was just some stupid hormonal thing. Nobody had to explain _that_ to him. He angrily wiped another tear from his eye. He had no right to feel angry. There were others, plenty others, with lots more to complain about. But he didn't want to think about them right now. He'd never been selfish before, and that just made him madder. "This is all _your_ fault," he snapped at his erection, which still bobbed happily between his legs, ignoring his internal crisis. He got up and stood at the window, looking out at the quiet compound. Nothing moved; even the Forest was silent tonight. The moon was coming into view overhead. It was almost full. It drowned out the stars. He looked up at the moon for a while. Then he climbed over the sill and landed gently on the ground. The cool soil felt good under his bare feet. He ran. He headed for the forest. He ran fast, but quietly. NICOLE registered him with a subliminal blip as he crossed the perimeter, and then he was in the forest and couldn't see the moon anymore. He headed for the pond. It was a hot night, and he'd go for a swim with Sonic. Maybe this time he'd be more willing to talk. He wondered how he'd ask the question again, and what Sonic would say. There was a faint CRACK from the direction of the lake. Now he remembered: Bunnie~ had midnight watch tonight, not Sonic. He slowed to a walk, but kept going. He'd wait till the power ring surfaced and she took it back to the compound. Then he'd have the pool to himself, and he'd have his swim. Another sound, the same one: an echoing CRACK. He stopped, concerned. There was probably no danger. The Forest would know, and it would let him know. But he couldn't identify the sound. He waited until it came again. CRACK... It was faint, as if it were across the lake. It sounded like a stone falling from a great height. Maybe the canyon wall was caving in? He resumed his walk, aware that his erection was finally going down, and grateful to have something else to occupy his attention. The sound kept coming: CRACK ... CRACK. Finally he came to the edge of the trees. The pond lay before him, empty except for the instruments float Rotor had moored in the middle last year. There was nothing on the float. He scanned the edge of the clearing and saw the glint of moonlight off burnished metal. Bunnie~ was sitting with her big metal feet dangling off the bank, looking into the water. He drew back. He didn't want to talk to her. He looked at the water. There was something wrong with it. There were too many ripples. Fish jumping? If so, there were too many fish. A faint sigh came from Bunnie~. As he watched, she picked up a stone from a pile next to her. She put it in her big left hand, the metal one. Then, with a nonchalant flick of her wrist, blurred beyond vision, she skipped the stone. It whizzed through the air as it crossed the pond in a single skip and CRACKED into the rocks on the opposite bank. Dust rose, faintly visible in bright moonlight. He watched, but she did nothing more. She just kept looking into the water. In a moment the faint ripples from where the rock had skipped crossed her view and tickled the beach. She didn't move. Curiosity warred briefly with privacy, and lost. He left the trees and approached her. One of her ears moved to track him, and she turned to greet him. "Hi, sugar." "Hi, Bunnie~." He came up next to her and studied her face carefully in the moonlight. She seemed as cheerful as ever. "You're up late," she said. "I couldn't sleep." "Know what you mean." She patted the sand with her right hand. "Have a seat." He sat down. She picked up another rock and skimmed it out expertly; it hummed with speed and disappeared with a CRACK and a puff of rock dust. It would have killed him if it had been aimed at him. He leaned forward and looked at her left arm nervously. In throwing the rock, it had swiveled on its own, independent of the rest of her. As if something else, something harsh and exacting -- not sweet, soft Bunnie~ -- were in control. "Is something wrong with your arm?" She shook her head. "I just ain't movin' with it, sugar. Sorry if I scared you." She wasn't even looking at him, but she had divined his thoughts exactly. He was struck by her empathy. He wondered if Rotor knew something he didn't. "How come you're skipping rocks?" he asked. "Hmmm?" She seemed distracted, staring at the surface of the water at her feet again. "Oh, just lonely. Well--" she smiled at him "--not lonely. I'm just kinda starved for company, you know?" He said nothing. She picked up another rock and skipped it; its speed caused it to bend through the air and go into the trees to the right. This time, he noticed, she threw with a natural motion -- a motion he'd always assumed was natural. "Well, _I'm_ here," Tails said. He felt foolish, trying to cheer Bunnie~ up. She smiled down at him again. "I know, sugar." There was a long silence, uncomfortable for him. She stared at the water. Tails did too, but he saw only their reflections, disturbed slightly by the ripples. "Tails," she asked, "what d'you think about me?" "What?" "About how I look." "Well, I ... I dunno, Bunnie~." She drummed her fingers on her right thigh, with a hollow metal sound. "The only one here in Knothole who remembers me like I was originally, is me. They all think of me as -- you know, cybernetic. It was a while ago, and now I'm the only one who remembers me, the old me, the one I used to be..." Tails was silent. Bunnie~ never talked like this. "Well," she continued, "so everytime I see myself, everytime I see a mirror, I see somebody I don't know. I see one of Robotnik's creatures. Plus part of a rabbit I used t'know." She wiped her nose. "And sometimes it catches me at a bad time and I get so sick and sad and sorry that there ain't nothin' to do 'cept skip rocks. You know what I mean, sugar?" The forest said "yes" for him. He only nodded. A great calm silence seemed to descend on them as he pondered her words. He looked at Bunnie~'s reflection in the water. She looked pretty from that angle, with her ears curved over her head like that. Like she was underwater, looking up at him. From nowhere came the thought: A drowned rabbit. To distract himself from that image he picked up a rock next to him and skipped it as hard as he could. It went seven skips, past the float, then stopped and sank. "Good one," she said. "You're better," she said. She giggled, like a warm light in the gloom. He smiled, too. She patted him companionably on the thigh. "Listen, sugar. Here's a tough question. You up for a tough question tonight?" "Sure, Bunnie~." She picked up a largish stone in her left hand and held it before him. "Let's say you could give me my old limbs back. Permanently. Would you do it?" He opened his mouth to answer, and she closed her metal claw, crushing the rock to gravel. He stopped suddenly. "Well?" Her expression was serious. "Well, uh..." he stammered. "Don't you like me?" "Yes!" "But I'm pretty useful around here, aren't I?" "I was just gonna say," he said lamely. "I guess I was supposed to..." She nodded. "Plenty of times, without me to get us out of scrapes, we'd be outta luck..." "Uh, yeah." She laughed, and tossed the gravel into the lake. "So what's your answer? Yes or no?" "I don't know. I can't just say ... I don't know what I'd do if it happened." She brushed the rock dust from her left hand with her right thoughtfully. "Guess that means you're growin' up, sugar." He looked up to see her smiling cockily at him. "About time; I was wonderin' when you were gonna catch up to them blazin' hormones o' yours." "What do you mean?" "Well, you're such a kid. Can't be one no more, sugar. You're bustin' out all over. When you gonna grow up?" "I AM grown up." He crossed his arms angrily. "But nobody knows it." "Sally?" she guessed. "Yeah." Her eyes twinkled. "She thinks of you as her kid, y'know. Tough to let go." He sulked. She ruffled the hair on the back of his neck. "You just keep workin' on her. She'll relax. You're just growin' out of those shoes too fast. She didn't expect to lose you so quick." "Thanks, Bunnie~." He hoped she would leave her hand on the back of his neck. "My pleasure." She leaned over and kissed him on the forehead. "You ever have anythin' to talk about, you know where to find me." The electric shock of her kiss froze his smile on his face and turned his brain to stone. As she turned away and stretched, he could feel his blood fizzing in his veins. He'd been handling it so well! He'd found someone to talk to, he was making progress -- and now she'd turned into a _girl_! He could feel his erection coming back, and desperately wished something would happen, like a sinkhole swallowing him up, or a meteor knocking his head in or something. Bunnie~, oblivious, skipped another stone. CRACK. Finally he got himself under control. He wondered if she had noticed anything. He felt like he'd been through a clothes-wringer. The insides of his thighs itched mightily, but he wasn't going to scratch them, huh-uh. "Look," she said, pointing downward. He looked. Their reflections were there, and that of the moon. The ripples from the stone's strike began to cross their images, rippling and distorting them. A raindrop fell. He looked up, startled, and realized it was a tear. Bunnie's. "When it's all blurry, if I don't look too close, I can almost see my old self," she said softly. "The way I was. All back together." He wondered what he should do. He felt like comforting her, but she didn't seem to need it. Nothing in her attitude suggested she couldn't handle her demons alone. "I'm sorry," he said, finally. She shook her head firmly. "Sugar, you ain't got nothin' to be sorry about. Me, neither. Lots o' folks deserve it more." "I know." She looked sidelong at him. "Honey, you feelin' OK?" "Why?" She studied him. "Sometimes feelin' sorry for someone else is a way to cover up feelin' sorry for yourself." He bit his lip. She put her arm around his newly broad shoulders and kissed his cheek, then snuggled against him in a motherly way. It was no doubt intended to be reassuring, but his hormones were utterly carbonated by now. Her left hand, apparently oblivious, picked up another stone and skipped it. The CRACK cleared his mind a bit. He looked down at her. Her body leapt into focus in the bright moonlight, with just enough shadows lingering on her suit and fur to make her mysterious. Desire, unfamiliar but exquisite, flared through him. He felt himself getting hard again. "Bunnie~?" The question came jerkily. "What'd you mean about 'having company'?" She pursed her lips, sleepily. "Well... I dunno, sugar. I just... I haven't had a real, best friend in a while." She paused, then continued thoughtfully: "You know, like, Antoine and Sal are friends, but Sal and Sonic, they're real best friends. Confidin' friends. You pick up on that?" Well, duh, he thought. Aloud he said, "What about Rotor? You're always in his workshop talking." She shook her head, rubbing her face against him. An ear drooped against his face. "Rotor? He's only interested in my body." Lightheaded from the close contact, he mumbled, "Yeah, that's what he said." She giggled. "I bet!" She sat up and snickered until she coughed. "That Rotor! He'll be a little kid till he's an old man." "What about Sonic?" Tails asked. He was suddenly anxious to keep the conversation going. Maybe if he did... maybe she would put her head back on his shoulder. She was sitting _right_ next to him. They were almost touching! Think about something else, for Mobius' sake! "Shallow," she said in dismissal. "And a real jerk sometimes, too. Always rushin' off, riskin' himself over damnfool things." It took him a second to remember they were discussing Sonic. "But he thinks you're cool." "He thinks I'm someTHING cool. Not someONE cool. I can't remember ever havin' an intelligent conversation with that guy. Don't know what Sally sees in him." "What about Sally?" "Sally!" Just a faint twinge of cattiness appeared in her voice. "Never much liked my mother, y'know? Sal's a mom ... or thinks she is ... plus, she's all brains 'n no brawn, so there's no way to relate, there. We ain't gonna do bench presses together ... what am I supposed to do? Play chess?" Tails smiled. Bunnie~ skipped another stone. "I ain't no mental giant but I know she wouldn't think I'm so darn special if I wasn't so darn strong. She's a princess. What do you expect from a princess?" "...Antoine?" She snorted, as if that were all that needed to be said. Apparently it was. "Well..." Tails swallowed. "What about me, Bunnie~? Can't we be friends?" The light dimmed as a cloud crossed the moon's disk. Bunnie~ turned to look at him. He couldn't see her eyes. "Well, sure I like you, sugar," she said softly. He gulped. "I don't have any friends, either." "Not Sonic?" "Not lately." She touched his shoulder. "You and Sonic had a fight?" "No, he just... he doesn't feel like talking." "About what?" "Stuff." She paused, then sat back. She rubbed the metal joint of her left shoulder reflectively. "So you been askin' the ol' prickleback some tough questions?" "I guess, yeah. What's so funny?" She was smiling. "Well... maybe I know what's wrong with that. Hmmm. Did you try Antoine?" "Yeah, he got mad when he found out I tried Sonic first." She laughed. "A royal twit. And I guess you don't want t' ask Sally, huh?" He shook his head. "Well, my offer stands. Ask me anything." He hung his head, silent. He knew what he should say, but he couldn't do it. He needed a clear head, and the Girl Waves coming off her were fuzzing everything up. "C'mon." "I don't know how to put it into words exactly," he mumbled. She said nothing. He focused his eyes and realized that he was looking directly at her cleavage. He raised his eyes hurriedly and met her gaze. She had a merry twinkle. "Poor little Tails," she said softly. "You ever kissed a girl?" That stung. "Lots of times," he said shortly. "I don't mean Sally good-night. I mean a _real_ kiss." "What's a _real_ kiss?" "Maybe sometime I'll show you, big boy," she said playfully, and nudged him. "When?" he asked bitterly. "When I'm grown up?" She regarded him soberly, then thoughtfully. Then she looked at where the path came out of the forest. He followed her gaze, but saw nothing. Suddenly he felt her hand at his chin, and turned back as she put her lips over his, with her head tilted to get under his muzzle. Too surprised, he submitted to the caressing movements of her lips. He almost shouted when he felt something enter his mouth. He reflexively tried to pull away, but her left arm was holding his elbow, in an unshakeable iron grip. His mind breached and leapt at the bizarre new sensation. Her tongue slid between his teeth, scraped over the ridges on the top of his mouth, toyed with his own tongue. Then, finally, it withdrew. It was over. She leaned back, let go his elbow, and watched him carefully. He almost fell backwards and had to put out a hand to steady himself. He licked his lips. She tasted like cereal. Not bad. Not what he had expected. His bowels felt watery. So did his knees. "How'd you feel?" she inquired softly. "Uh--" he stuttered. "Scared." "How come?" He didn't really know. He pointed to her left arm. "You were holding on so tight -- you could've crushed my arm..." She made a _pshaw_ gesture. "I can pick up an egg with those fingers. That ain't what you were scared of." She kept looking at him, with half-lidded eyes. He gritted his teeth as he felt his erection getting bigger. What if she saw it? She had only to look down and there it was. Unimaginable embarrassment. Finally she smiled again -- back to her old self. "You hot, sugar?" He was incredibly hot. "Yes." "How 'bout a swim?" "Yeah!" he exclaimed, too loudly, but he wanted to end the scrutiny. He immediately slid forward into the pond. He took a breath as he went under. The cold mountain water instantly soaked his frazzled fur and chilled his skin. But, more importantly, his inquisitive penis found it was too cold out and retreated. He breathed out a sigh of relief and rose in a cloud of bubbles. She wasn't in the water yet. She was doing something with both hands, at her left hip. He paddled closer and put his hand on the shore, watching her. "Watcha doing?" "Sshh," she said, concentrating. She was guiding her big left hand, exerting pressure with it on the joint her left leg made with her body. He couldn't see exactly what she did, but in a moment there was a disengaging sound, a sort of clickrunck, and her leg came free. "Oohh," he said softly. "Hard to float with 'em on," she noted as she went to work on her right leg. Her left leg lay on its side, now inert. It was disconcerting to see it lying next to her. But it was sort of exciting to see what she had on her body there. It was a dull metal disk, slightly flanged, with a retracting central fixture. He paddled closer and saw, between the smallish disk and her bodysuit, a tuft or two of fur. It was revolting, but thrilling. With another clickrunck, the second leg came off. Holding herself upright with her metal arm, she arranged her metal legs with her right arm. As she stretched them out next to each other, she called to him: "Wanna see 'em up close?" "No thanks." She appeared above them, upside down. He realized she had planted her left hand in the grass and extended her left arm straight up, with her body, the fleshy parts of her, at the end of it. "Look!" she called to him. "It's me! What do you think?" And she spun around a few times, like a whirligig on a post. "It looks gross; come down from there." That was what he started to say. His tongue lost its footing on the second word when she reached her right hand up to her bustline and matter-of-factly stripped her bodysuit off. There was nothing to stop it; her legs were gone. She draped it over one of her own thighs, lying on the ground, then caught his astonished reaction. She laughed. "You kid!" she snorted. "What's new? You'n Sally and Sonic've been runnin' round in yer birthday suits for so long, why can't I join in?" "Well, uh," he eloquently stuttered. Even without legs, she was beautiful against the moonlight. As she spun herself a final time, ears flung about, right arm back, he fancied he could see her breasts moving beneath her fur, and he shivered in the warm water. Finally she lowered herself until she lay on her back, with her left arm toward shore. She reached out with her small right hand and playfully tugged his forelock. "About finished waitin' for me?" He could only nod. "Y-yes, Bunnie." Her left arm settled against the grass, inert. She reached over with her right hand and began fiddling with the shoulder. She grunted with strain. It seemed to be harder than the legs. "You need help?" Tails asked. She shook her head. "Just catch me when it pops off. I need to be able to do this by myself." He was wondering what she meant when the joint let go, not with a pop but with a soft CHUNTing sound. She lay back carefully. Then, with great simplicity, she rolled to her right -- rolled right into the pond, splashing him. He panicked and plowed into the bubbles, bumping into Mobius knew what, trying to find something recognizable to grab on to. It was so weird, when she was missing an arm and both legs, and those oversize! And she wasn't helping; once she playfully slapped his hand away. Finally he saw an ear before him and reached for it. His other hand found her neck and went around it, just as her hand encircled his waist. He brought her to the surface. She had only been under a few seconds. "Whoo!" she sprayed water, and sneezed. She shook water from her drooping ears and looked at him coyly. "Nice catch." "Sorry." He sneezed, too. They were sinking; she felt pretty dense, probably from the joints inside her. But he bore her up easily. He loved doing it; he could have held her up beside him in the water for years, if necessary, looking at the water run between her fur, smelling the smell of her skin. "Let's go out to the raft," she suggested, breaking the spell. He stroked slowly, carefully, out toward the equipment float. She kept her arm -- her right arm, her only arm -- around his chest, looking over his left shoulder. As they moved, he was very careful not to wash her off to one side or the other. It struck him how precarious her position was, with only an arm and a hand to stroke with. How helpless she was in water! And yet, if she wore her massive limbs now, she would not float. That was obviously what she wanted to do. She floated just separate from him, her hand pressed into his midriff, her front brushing his back lightly as she floated as high as possible. The touch was driving him, he knew, absolutely mad. His erection was a burning iron between his leg. Thank Mobius she couldn't see it. He felt her coming free to his right and corrected for it, sweeping his arms and legs softly. He could feel her head back, her face to the sky. What was she looking at? What was she seeing? Then she tilted forward again, until she was breathing past his left ear. Her closed eye pressed against the back of his head. Every hair on his head stood at rapt attention to share in the experience. They were almost at the raft, and he knew she had already given him something he would never, ever forget. "Stop," she breathed. He came to a stop. They were at the instrument float; his left shoulder softly bumped against the corner of one of the pontoons. "Will it hold both of us?" Again the question came as a soft breath into his ear. His heart skipped a beat. "Yes." "I want to ... take in some sun," she said, and smiled into his ear. "Get me aboard." "Okay," he breathed back. She drifted limp as seaweed as he moved her around him, to the side of the raft. It was flat, wooden bottom, with a few low mountings to the sides. He made her lie back in the water and got his right hand under her back. Then he got a firm grip on the raft and pushed her up out of the pond. Balanced perfectly, head back, eyes closed, water running off her body, she looked like a goddess -- a limbless one, that being the only thing detracting from it. Tails maneuvered her over the side of the float and lay her down on her left side. She came awake, then, and put her right arm down. She then rolled herself once left, to make room for him. He almost laughed at the sight, but bit his tongue to stop. "Is the sun in the right place?" she asked, softly, playfully. The moon was full, high overhead. "Yes," he said. Her gesture said, come join us. He clumsily climbed onto the float, and almost cried out as his erection glanced off the wood. Quickly he got onto his back, and wormed his way over to be next to her. A glance showed her eyes were closed. Good thing, because his stiff little prick was pointing straight up in the air. Not so little at all, tonight. He gasped at its presumption. "OK, hon?" she murmured. "Yeah," he murmured back, careful to give no hint of his agitation. They lay there, rocking gently to the dying ripples of the pond, for what seemed like hours. Tails knew that what he lay next to was incomplete; it lacked essential parts. But when he turned his head to the left to view her, he saw an arm, and a head, and the curve of a shoulder. She looked complete to him. In his mind she seemed to take on a glow beyond the moon, so she blazed with a feminine fire. He lay peacefully, jutting toward the sky, looking up through the depths into the blinding glow of the moon. And when he turned from that and looked at her, and the rise and fall of her chest as she lay sleeping, with that glow around her, and then back to the moon again, he could not decide which was more beautiful. He never went to sleep. ===============================================================================