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thejusticelounge2012-05-12 11:05 pm
bossymarmalade) wrote in thejusticelounge2012-05-12 11:05 pm
chiaroscuro
When Kate arrived at the partially renovated Warriors on Venice Beach, Kyle hurried her upstairs and into his bedroom without saying much beyond “Hola.” She felt like she was being smuggled through airport security, for all of Kyle’s furtive glances and hustling. Once they were in his room and the door was closed, Kyle looked relieved.
His room wasn’t much to look at. There was a mattress on the floor, some scattered heaps of clothes (not much) and an array of art supplies lined up on one side of the wall. On the wall facing the bed, a myriad of pencil and black paint scrawled on the white paint, forming what Kate could only guess was the start of a giant mural painting.
Kyle turned to her with a sigh of relief. “Sorry for the rushing. I’ll give you the grand tour later. Right now I’m just trying to dodge oncoming red-headed storm clouds.” He went to the other side of his ‘bed’ and retrieved a couple beers from the mini-fridge. “Oh ah haaaa, not really much place to sit, huh?” Kyle said, kicking the forlorn blanket on the bed so that Kate could sit down. Kyle’s shoulders slumped. “I’m not usually like this, when I’m at home. I just want you to know that. I CAN live like a grown-up.”
“Grand tour plus an explanation,” Kate said, crossing her arms and leaning against the non-painted/penciled wall until Kyle indicated she could sit down. She slid down onto the mattress, kicking off her sandals and accepting the cold Corona. Twisting open the cap, she continued, “We need to get you to Pottery Barn. Or more like IKEA, Pottery Barn is muy yuppie for you, but better than the flophouse look.”
Her expression grew pointed as she kicked her legs out, pointed her toes for a moment, then took a sip of beer. “What’s with all the cloak and dagger shit, Kyle? You look like you’ve been through the wringer—more than what I’d expect. I know losing your mom has been really hard, but Ollie said you were holding up okay when he saw you last week, and I’m guessing it’s not just that you and Guy are having a Mommy And Daddy Are Just Disagreeing Honey fight over League politics. That’s not something you’d lose this much sleep over.”
As usual, Kate didn’t look like she’d accept a dodge as an answer. “Something you would sneak me through your own damn place to avoid, you being one huge chico de evitativo,” she added, as a verbal nudge. “But not completely keep from getting your house in order.”
Seeing Kate make herself comfortable on the mattress made Kyle collapse onto his side, a little behind her. Just in case she wanted a back rest at some point. He braced his elbow on a pillow and propped his head up so he could face her.
“I have no intention of keeping anything from you, hermana. Let’s see where to start…since we last talked.” Kyle took a gulp of his beer and contemplated the small sliver of Kate’s skin that peeked between her shirt and capris. “I brought Connor back, after finally hearing from him. Thanks to Ollie, of course. But he and I…kind of ended it. Well, whatever we had. It think it was for the best.” Kyle looked up at Kate, realizing that he actually had someone who would give a damn about his feelings about this. Not that Guy didn’t care, but he was just…carefully supportive. Kate on the other hand, had seen Connor and Kyle’s dance from the get-go. She knew.
Kyle compulsively reached out and took Kate’s free hand, manipulating it so he could press his mouth against her knuckles. She smelled warm and sunny, just like he’d expected. “It’s been…difficult. But I know it’s for the best. I could never make him happy.”
It felt a little like the stereotypical after school/sleepover kind of girl talk, lying around like this, though Kate wouldn’t have told Kyle that for the world. Maybe more like her time in college, instead. (Complete with the slight frisson of sexual tension, even, enjoyable as it was—Kate had had a very specific kind of college experience.) She was so damn lucky that even in the ridiculous meta-super-capey life, she could have friends like him.
“About time you realized that feeding me a line gets you nowhere, chico,” she said, slurping some beer, then pausing mid-swig as she processed what he was telling her. Slowly she set the beer down, clutching it between her legs (cold, ow) and reaching out to put her newly-free hand against Kyle’s cheek as he kissed her fingers. “Dios, I’m sorry, ese. I had no idea, I shouldn’t have given you shit about this place and all of that—I know you love him.”
She felt guilty, even though she didn’t know if she should or not. Not that she was going to mention it right now.
“It’s true,” Kyle said feeling content, his voice muffled by her palm. He’d learned by know that Kate was somehow a very calming presence for him, even if half the time he was hot for her. But in a calming way. It made sense to him, anyway.
“And I do love him. But it’s honestly not just about me not being good enough for him. It just…it wouldn’t work out.” Kyle found couldn’t stop thinking about Guy and Tora, but that wasn’t his story to tell. And besides: on the other side or Guy and Tora, there was Hal and Ollie. Kyle supposed maybe he fell somewhere between ‘married to the job’ Lantern and ‘looking to settle down’ Lantern. He could deal with that. “Gracias, Kate. Ahaha, and in return for listening to my woes, you can totally rag on me for the state of this room! Es muy patético, yo sabes, sabes.”
Kyle held her hand momentarily before launching onto his stomach, using his ring to pull some paints and things over to the mattress. He began sorting through them, looking back at her every now and then. “I’m kind of just assuming you’re doing a-okay with your relationship situation? Si? Don’t wanna make an ass of you and me,” Kyle laughed at the stupidity of that tired joke.
“You don’t want to talk about why it wouldn’t work out, I’m guessing,” Kate said. She stroked his cheek for a second—somewhere between motherly and romantic—before picking up her beer again. After drinking from it again, she ticked a fingernail against the printed-on logo, unable to achieve her usual MO of peeling the label off. Thanks, Corona people.
“I’ll give you a little bit of a break from the ragging, all things considered, but you seriously, seriously need some help in here,” she noted, watching Kyle sort through paints. “You and Guy make up, you go to IKEA, you call me and say ‘Kaaaate, muchacha, pasé mucho dinero, esto no encaja en nuestro coche,’ and I come down and take some of your shit back here for you.”
Kate had been people’s IKEA backup before. You always, always bought more than you meant to.
“My relationship’s fine,” she said, and her cheeks darkened just a little. “I’m…I’ve got crash space of my own in Star City now. Still living here, never leaving, but I’ve got a home there, now, too. With Ollie.”
Kyle took a moment to roll in laughter at the idea of having to call Kate with over-spending woes at IKEA. He collapsed on his back and scratched at his stomach, looking at her like a pleased cat. ”That was a really good impression! I’m gonna have to come up with one for you, you just wait. And don’t worry, I’m getting there with Guy. I think he just needed to stomp around for a while and let me know just how angry he was. Chico is as sensitive as a gir….” Kyle trailed off as he watched Kate’s Patented Eyebrow Raise of Disapproval (TM) start. “…errrr I mean, as a baby! He’s as sensitive as an ungendered, neutral baby. Don’t let him know I said that, por favor.”
He listened to Kate’s assessment of herself, struggling to sit up in alarm when he heard about her new home in Star City. Okay, but she wasn’t saying she was leaving LA, just…okay. Kyle nodded consideringly. “I guess that makes sense, I mean. You have to do something to upkeep long distance relationships other than meeting up in the station in the sky. As long as you don’t leave Los Angeles, si? Me gusta usted aquí. Why do you think I bullied Guy into choosing LA? Hey! I could always fly you there, too! Rayner Air, all the way. Best way to fly.”
“Look, I know what happens at IKEA. You end up walking out with amazing and useless stuff like pony-shaped cake pans.” This may have happened to Kate at one point. Maybe. She’d thought Ramsey would like them…or that had been her excuse. “And what happens at IKEA does stay at IKEA. But I eagerly await your impression, muchacho,” she added, crossing her arms, beer in hand still. “And you and Guy Getting Over Yourselves, because one of these days in the near future, I want to spend the day reading on the beach and then come into your bar with both of you running it, how it should be.”
She nodded her approval at Kyle’s correction, eyes narrowed (though she thought it was a little rich, coming from him), then slugged more of her beer. “The station’s a little cold, you know?” she said. “Which can be sexy, in a way, but not all of the time. I’m not gonna leave LA. I was born and raised here, it’s la patria. And…”
Leaning in, she winked at him and picked up some silver paint. “I’m totally all about flying Rayner Air. Pretty damn amazing, if you ask me.” Innuendo entirely optional.
“Pony…shaped…boy I haven’t been to IKEA in a while. Jenny was obsessed with the big blue box; so believe me I can dig heading in with a couple hundred spending bucks and leaving with five gees worth of useless crap, that I have to assemble and which breaks a year later.” Kyle made a face, but then again, Jenny always did reward him for using his manly assembly skills. IKEA was good times.
Kyle was quiet for a moment as he imagined the wide variety of one-piece and two-piece numbers that Kate might potentially sport on the beach. Coupled with her mentioning the Watchtower he thought back to their drawing session…he licked his lips and his eyes drifted to look at her breasts. And no one could miss the meaning behind her last comment. He curled a lazy, heated smile at her, almost tempted to pull her on top of him and break his new mattress in.
But then Kate selected a pot of silver paint, and Kyle shook his head, clearing it of beery thoughts and that citrusy Kate-scent that made his mouth water.
He stood himself up, looking back at the wall. “So I was looking through some old Beatles albums that Guy had - records, can you believe it? That Guy - and it inspired me,” Kyle motioned up at the wall-sketches. “But I can’t decide between, like. Mega-psychadelic? Or clean black and white line art.” He turned to her. “What do you think?”
“That’s what IKEA is for, chico.” Kate tried to drink from her beer nonchalantly, though that was easier said than done. The dry heat of Kyle’s smile, his expression for that brief moment. tempted her to flick her tongue against the lip of the bottle. She did it, but only once, before the guilt came back—maybe it’s your fault things didn’t work out for them, Kate—and she stopped herself.
Damn it.
“Guy? Beatles? Either way…clean black and white line art,” she said, fingering open the tub of paint, dipping her fingertips in, “with splashes of color. Small ones. You know, I always wondered what it’d be like to just put silver paint all over myself, look like I was made of metal? Kind of weird, I know.”
Kyle was nodding in approval and looking up at the wall when she advised black and white. She was right. As much as Kyle loved colour, he was pretty sure having it blaring on his wall at the foot of his bed would likely start to irritate him after a while. He still wanted something along the lines of ROY G BIV, if only as an homage to the Lanterns; and Kate’s suggestion of light spectrum color accents sounded perfecto. “Tienes razón. Gracias, Kate. I think—”
Kyle stopped himself; or rather, he completely forgot what he was going to say when he turned back to look at her as she contemplated painting herself silver, two of her long fingers now dripping in the mercury-tinted paint. “I think…” Kyle floundered, his vision going slightly blurry. “I painted Alex once,” he said, for the sake of something to say. “She wanted to be like from the movie Goldfinger, y’know. I pretended to be Bond…” Kyle grinned at the memory. “It looked really good.” Kyle bit at his bottom lip, because of course now all he could imagine was a sleek, silvery Kate. Every bit of her. Dios.
“De nada,” Kate said automatically. “I guess I just don’t know what you’re thinking about painting—more abstract, or something representational, but the color works either way, no te parece? I mean, you’re gonna have to look at it until you get used to it as part of the room.”
She dabbed one silvery finger against one of the knuckles clutching the bottle, leaving a streak against her skin. “This isn’t body paint, of course,” she mused. “You know, you have done waaaay too much kinky shit for someone your age, ese, though you probably know that that’s bullshit, the whole suffocating someone in paint. I saw it on Mythbusters once.”
He was looking at her again, and all she could do was smirk. Maybe she was winding him up a little, to distract him from being so damn miserable. “I don’t know if I’d want to be all silver. Just strategically painted.”
Kyle blinked disbelievingly at Kate, about to ask how she could notknow what he wanted to paint, when it was all here! Realized in carefully drawn pencils and black tape! …But then he remembered that what he drew on the walls probably’d just looked like a mess of grey and black to anyone else but him. He nodded complacently and came around to sit down beside her, using some green light globules to illuminate and pull at the paint on her fingers, making it look more like droplets of mercury pooling against her skin.
“No no no, I wouldn’t use this on you, though I did buy it for how pretty it looked,” Kyle said, feeling subdued in a very pleasant way as he manipulated the paint to slide around her fingers in tendrils. He shook his head. “I totally bought into that urban legend, then. I think you’d look you’d look extraordinaria in all silver…” He sheeted the paint out in green light, gilding her hand in both. “Like…” Kyle grinned and nudged her, teasing. “Like a really sexy Terminator.”
If Kate squinted at the wall, she could maybe see some of what Kyle was going for, though she didn’t really understand it yet. Despite her best efforts, she wasn’t really as artistic as she wanted to be. Creative, maybe, but artistic…not so much. Idly, she held her hand up, looking at the green-tinged silver running against her skin in a detached and fascinated way, almost like the scene in Terminator 2 where T-1000 was in the form of John Connor’s foster mom.
Kate was possibly more geeky than she let on, or really overly fond of action movies. Or both.
She broke character and smiled. “I’m not that violent, ese,” she pointed out, but flicked her fingers at him, like she was wearing the silver like a glove. “Maybe sometime you can paint me, though this isn’t really the place for it.”
“Ah-poosh,” Kyle supplied the gag reaction and the sound effect for her silvered glove-flick and then caught her hand, pulling the silver cleanly off and dripping it back into the pot. He felt kind of pleased when he noticed she seemed to recognize and accept the Terminator comparison; Kyle suspected there was an inner geek hidden behind the tough lawyer exterior. “I’d love to paint you silver. And then Donna could take pictures…” Kyle said that before thinking and he looked a little flustered. He busied himself with opening some more pots of paint and finding his paintbrushes and paint-markers.
“Are you developing some kinda anti-violence complex, Ms Spencer?” Kyle said, raising his eyebrows in mock-surprise. “This is the second - no maybe the third time you’ve ah….reiterated that to me.”
Laughing at Kyle’s ability to pick up on her impression, Kate cocked her head. “Pictures? As long as they didn’t end up on the internet and show up on TMZ, chico…though Ms. Troy is pretty amazing, I must concur.” She didn’t know why Kyle seemed nervous about the idea, though—well, she had some idea, but still, it wasn’t like she was going to make things awkward.
Uh. More awkward.
She slid to lie back down on the mattress, kicking one leg out in a stretch as she picked up some vermilion red paint next, watching him. “I’m not developing a complex,” she said. “I’m just making a point to the general public who think I’m the most bloodthirsty super-type on the West Coast. God forbid a woman be violent, they both love and hate that. It’s hot, but don’t get too nasty or you’re a crazy bitch.”
Kate turned the paint jar over and over in her hands, watching the red move. Maybe she was a little bitter.
“There’s that TMZ thing again. I really need to start watching more TV than old Simpsons reruns and Colbert. And…yeah. Donna is amazing…yeah. She is amazing. Mmm. MM-hmm…” Kyle gathered his artistically emotional shields to his chest and turned to watch Kate as she talked about her own personal trials being a woman. He looked sympathetic.
“I won’t say I understand how you feel, but I do get what you mean. All my exes got a lot of strife for being very…opinionated, in different ways.” His girlfriends also got strife for being older than him…which Kyle always found hypocritical to the max. “And when they fought back, it didn’t always work out, because…well. Because some guys can be real cabróns to women who stand up to them.” He paused, looking and sounding distressed for a moment.
Taking a breath, Kyle placed his tools on a green stand and came around to Kate, pulling her up off the bed. “Vamos, carina. I need your help with this.” He motioned to the wall mural. “Nothing better than some arts and crafts to make everything seem a bit more golden, y’know?” He opened the pot of vermillion she had in her hand, and hopefully twirled a paintbrush to her.
“Ugh, don’t start watching that shit, ese, it’ll make you have a stroke,” said Kate gently, her brow furrowing in concern. “I just keep an eye out for Ramsey’s sake, pretty much.” She wasn’t lost enough in her own frustration to not notice the way Kyle looked—she knew what had happened to Alex, for a start, and she felt terrible for bringing it back to him. Especially considering that things for him were already less than great. “And yeah. Some guys can. The world can be a shitty, shitty place.”
That’s why she did what she did. Hell, why Kyle did what he did, in a way.
She plucked the paintbrush out of the air, then wrapped her arm around Kyle’s shoulders, leaning in to kiss his cheek. “Come on,” she said, “let’s do some art. Things in here need to get a little more áureo, you’re right. Sabes?”
Kyle nodded, looking more than grateful at Kate taking the paintbrush. He liked the kiss even more, and then kissed her back on her cheek in return.
“You always know the best things to say. And do,” Kyle enthused, and bit on the end of his paintbrush as he regarded the mural wall, trying to find a good spot for Kate to start. There was a place in the upper left corner where Kyle had intended to convey heat, LA, action, Alex DeWitt and Kate Spencer. It would make sense for Kate to paint something that reminded Kyle of her. He flew up, laughing.
“Kate to paint,” he said out, amused by his own simplistic rhyme; then pointed to a shape and looked down at Kate. “Think you can start with the red up here, carina?” He created a green light step ladder for her, helping her climb up so he could show her the shape. “It’ll be like painting by numbers. No need to stay between the lines though, I can patch it up later.”
They painted for a while, Kyle really getting into it and really getting into Kate being like an assistant. For a moment he paused and flew back to survey his work, admiring the view of Kate studiously painting, now using silver. He smiled, feeling a warm shiver. It was all so…Frida. He loved that movie.
“Things between you and me are okay, right?” Kyle asked before he could stop himself. “I feel like when I brought Connor back, things kinda went…askew.”
“Yeah, tell that to mio ex esposo,” Kate noted wryly. “At least someone thinks I can do stuff right.” Even so, the thought pleased her, and she nimbly climbed the ladder, bare feet gripping each step with slightly curled toes. It had taken a while for her to get used to this whole Green Light Construction stuff, but she was mostly confident in it now, if only because Kyle was confident in himself.
After following orders (see, she could do that if it suited her; Kyle obviously knew better than she did how to paint in a way that didn’t look like shit, ergo) and painting the designated areas for a while, humming a little under her breath, she almost startled at his question. Almost. She was past getting startled by anything save someone landing on her, these days.
“I thought things were okay.” She finished the space she was painting first, carefully using the brush to catch a droplet of paint that was about to run over the line. Setting the palette and brush down, she leaned on the top of the ladder, looked down at him. “I’m not upset with you, Kyle. If anything, you should maybe be upset with me, but…yeah.”
Kyle frowned up at her; or rather past her, at the wall. He floated up and used the edge of his pinky finger to swipe some of Kate’s paintwork off into a cleaner line. He looked at her askance, more guarded that Kate was used to seeing the usually very open Kyle.
“Me upset at you? Why would I be?” Kyle looked back at her handiwork, nodding in approval. He wrung his hands absently, as if he was cleaning off paint with an imaginary rag. ”You’ve been nothing but incredible to me, Kate.”
“Because I did the whole smouldering temptress thing. Brought sexy back, though with less of an awesome hat than Justin had. Kyle…” Kate frowned back at him, brow furrowing. She slowly descended the ladder, then caught a finger under Kyle’s jaw to tilt his chin upwards so that he looked her in the eye. It left a faint smear of paint, transferred from that which had gotten onto her skin. “Tell me. What is it?”
It was pretty close to The Voice that she’d told Dick about. Kyle should have known by now that Kate Spencer didn’t enable his avoidant tendencies.
Kyle huffed a laugh, looking somewhat incredulous but in a affectionate, amused way. ”Smoldering temptress? I like the idea of that…” He took her hand and turned so he could face her. “…but Dios, you didn’t do anything wrong. And quite frankly, I don’t think I did either. I still don’t see how I could’ve been -” Kyle used air quotes, rolling his eyes slightly “-‘cheating on’ someone who left me. Even when we talked about it, Connor and I; I felt sorry I hurt him, but I didn’t really get why he was hurt. I dunno…I guess maybe I make things complicated for other people, when it’s all really kinda simple up here.” Kyle tapped his temple, and then brushed some of Kate’s hair that was falling in her eyes.
He kissed her forehead, breathing in her scent at the same time. “I’m sorry you’re feeling bad, carina. I’ll understand if you wanna y’know, take a step back or something. You do have a lot on your plate right now anyway.” He laughed apologetically, rubbing the back of his neck. “Not that I don’t think you can’t handle a lot more!”
“Didn’t you ever see Moulin Rouge?” asked Kate, letting Kyle take her hand. She noted the smear of palm-tree green paint under his chin with amusement. “The new one, that is—Ollie would want me to tell you that, because apparently they made films before 1963. Though I’m hardly Nicole Alabaster Kidman…”
She squeezed his hand for a moment. “I don’t think we did anything wrong either, though I can sort of see Connor’s POV even though I think he’s wrong about it. I mean, we’re friends. I love you, ese, though not like the going and dating kind of thing, and I’m glad we’re friends. You’re damn fun in the bedroom, and I can’t complain about that. I just…don’t want to be the person who fucked up a good thing for you, even if it wasn’t something I regret.”
Smirking at him, she added, gaze flicking up at him with a wink, “I hope you don’t get all put off hombres because of all of this. Though I figure some of us women can do nearly all of the stuff they can…” She did still have the right equipment, somewhere.
Kyle lit up. “Oh hey yeah, I loved that movie! I only saw it once, though, it was a long time ago. I liked the songs…” Kyle rubbed his face, then looked surprised to see paint come off from his chin. He touched his painted finger on her bare shoulder, fascinated with how the green looked against her brown skin. Grass and earth…bonita.
He nodded and looked increasingly content and pleased with Kate’s assessment of their relationship. “You didn’t fuck up nada, muchacha. Honestly I had things sorted in two categories in my head and…well. Anyway. No point replaying the past; what I’m trying to say is, that’s all over and this is now and me complace, comprende?”
He shrugged when she brought up loving on other hombres, looking consideringly off in the distance. “I dunno, Kate,” Kyle said seriously. “I know I loved Connor, deeply, but that whole sex with a…guy…I…” Kyle drifted off, his smile going lopsided. Was she saying what he thought she was? “Hehhhhh. Yeah. You sure are right about that, Kate.”
Kate turned and looked at her shoulder, crooking her head as best she could to see the smudge of paint. “We need to get you a crash course in pop culture, muchacho. Maybe Mia’s willing to lend you some DVDs or something, because you are so missing out.”
She wandered over and opened the minifridge to get another pair of beers out from it. “Look, I’m…I’m sorry this happened, that things didn’t work out for you and Connor. But I’m definitely not sorry about what we did. Or what we might do, si…”
The expression on Kyle’s face, though, made her grin, and she came back over to hand him a beer with a soft cold slap of glass to his hand. “Look, maybe if you find some other guy sometime, maybe the sex’ll seem all right. But hey…I didn’t know you were into that kind of thing. Tried it, yeah, but…”
Kate opened her beer and took a long swig with a smile on her face. It was the look of the metaphorical cat with the canary.
“Mia did marathon me through Powerpuff Girls,” Kyle said, turning around to watch Kate as went to his mini-fridge. He appreciated the way she crossed her legs at her ankles before she bent down to fetch the beers. “I guess I’m sorry too…I’m sorry I lost a good friend in all of this. I’m sorry about that more than anything. AS for whatever ‘relationship’ beyond friendship that we had, well. It didn’t last long enough for me to miss it, so. That’s that.”
He twisted the cap off the beer, swaying his hips only slightly as he looked at her take a long, cool drink. He mirrored her drinking, not breaking her eye contact. “I’m willing to do anything for the right woman, carina. I figured you knew that by now.” Kyle held his breath…and there it was. Kate’s small pink tongue, darting out to lick her lips. Kyle exhaled, a little choppy.
“Man cannot live on Powerpuff Girls alone,” Kate intoned solemnly, before drinking a little more of her beer. She was glad, though, that Kyle and Mia would still be friends…and hell, she was fairly certain Ollie wasn’t about to kill him, either. Good stuff. (Though she did wonder how much of Ollie not killing him was for her sake.) “Dios, I wish I could just stream Hulu into your head…can’t you just be like, ‘Ring, get me about twenty episodes of Battlestar Gal…’” She paused. “Wait, then again, that might seem a little tame after the real thing. Good TV, though.”
The hip sway, and the slight sigh as Kyle exhaled, didn’t escape her notice, and she pursed her lips around the lip of the bottle before swigging again and leaning against the (unpainted, not the mural) wall. “Dare I ask what you mean by ‘the right woman’, ese?” she said. “It’s a pity this kind of thing takes a small chunk of planning and investment, it’s so damn fun, and it’s such a warm afternoon…”
God, it was way too easy to fuck with Kyle, and he was so damn willing to be fucked with.
“Battlestar Galactica?” Kyle laughed incredulously. “Next you’re gonna tell me you’ve watched all of Doctor Who as well!” He whapped his beer lightly against her forearm. “You are such a fangeek! The last series I saw till the end was…Xena? Or Buffy. Maybe Alias? One of those. All awesome. After that I just…kinda stopped. I’m a bad fanboy, I know I know. Jenny and I had plans to like, marathon through shows as they came out on DVD, but then, y’know. Life happened.”
“The right woman…! Y’know what I mean…” Kyle huffed again and grinned up at the ceiling, feeling uncharacteristically shy. He bounced his hip against hers to break out of it, trying to figure out what she meant by ‘planning’ and ‘investment’. When he realized, he scoffed. “Kate, I’m not trying to buy a house. Tengo este,” Kyle held up his fist with his ring. “And I have some uh…supplies that Roy lent - well, no not lent - gave to me. When I was still trying to navigate the whole Connor logistics, heh heh.”
Feeling all companionable and affectionate, Kyle looped his arm loosely around Kate’s waist letting the cold bottle brush against her skin as he kissed her, twice. He rested his forehead against hers. “So okkkay, maybe not today; but if the fancy ever strikes you carina, I’ll be ready.”
“I have my moments, I’ll admit that, Lantern Rayner,” Kate said, faking penitence by looking down and gently scuffing her toes against the floor, before looking up and grinning. “Ramsey likes Doctor Who, and Peter can’t stand it, so it’s our thing, okay? I’m not that much del friki, I just like the show. And, uh, some other shows. I don’t have a problem, I’m not gonna dress up at a convention with fake ears or anything.”
She smiled faintly then looked absolutely adorkable for a moment. Maybe that was a little too much protesting.
Leaning into Kyle, she smiled slowly, meeting his eyes with a raised brow before tugging him over to flop down on the bed, less in a let’s fuck way, more in a let’s be close way. “Oh, the fancy strikes me, all right,” she said, voice low, and probably it was a little of The Voice again, added in. “I just didn’t know if you’d be into it with me or you wanted something less casual for that kind of thing, sabes?”
Damn, there were some good mental images involved with this. She dragged her teeth against her upper lip before turning her attention to her beer.
There was the thrill down his spine again. Kyle was glad to feel it; it was likely that he’d never stop getting a thrill out of people - well, his friends and loved ones - calling him ‘Lantern Rayner’. Especially from friends and loved ones that he liked to get down on.
“I am remembering this moment forever,” Kyle murmured, wondrously. “When I found a woman who rivaled my own inner geek. Most. Awesome. Day.”
Kyle let himself flop back onto the mattress with Kate, and he pulled one of her legs up to rest against his thigh. He ran his hand up and down under her leg, as he grinned in approval at her. “I think you’re the perfect person to try all this out with, I mean…” Kyle studied her leg for a bit, his hand circling up her thigh to the curve of her ass, and then back down her leg to grip at her heel. “I mean, I’ve never tried it the other way, either. With a guy or a girl.” Kyle thinned his eyes and pursed his lips, looking speculative. “Huh. Funny how Alex convinced me to let her have her way with my culo, but not the other way around. That tricksy chica.”
“I am not that big a geek. At least I know all the main characters on The Office, Señor Went Off to Oa and Forgot About Relevant Pop Culture References.”
Kate would have been seriously amused to find herself in the category of ‘loved ones that Kyle liked to get down on’. As it was, she was still amused anyway, and then…well, surprised.
“You haven’t?” she asked, blinking, slightly startled, fingertips tapping at the glass of her beer. “Wait, you let Alex fuck you but you didn’t ever insist on giving it a try yourself? Admittedly, a considerable win for you as un feministo, there are too many pendejos who are all hey baby, why won’t you let me tap your ass, I can make it real good, and who are totally lying about that—they’re the guys who don’t know what they’re doing—but still. A little bit of a shocker.”
Kyle looked solemn, even repentant. “I look forward to my re-education as a functioning member of mainstream pop-culture society, Kate. Maybe then Mia will stop calling me a hipster.” Kyle didn’t yet tell Kate about the ‘illegal’ satellite constructs him and Guy were capable of creating. He’d show off later.
“And it wasn’t a feministo thing!” Kyle protested, although the more he thought about it the more he did like the idea of it fitting into being a good feminist. He lay on his back and looked up at the ceiling, pushing Kate’s leg a liiiitle closer to his knees. He could already feel the heat pouring off of her, and he didn’t want to be distracted by sex while talking about sex. Because somehow that made sense to him.
He tried to remember, but eventually he just shrugged. “Yeah I can’t say I know why, I mean. I’m pretty sure I must’ve asked her; and I’ll bet she seemed ‘meh’ and so that was that. Didn’t seem important, she had so many other ideas to keep us ocupado. And the other chicas I’ve slept with, well…I never asked. I kinda figured most women were ‘meh’ about it?” He propped his head up, to face at Kate. “I mean, what IS the appeal, for a woman? Chingado en culo?” Suddenly realizing what he was asking, Kyle sat up a bit more, looking alarmed. “Uh…is this getting too much TMI? Because I can totally redact.”
“If by hipster, she means deliberately obtuse, then si, si.” Kate let out a faux-exasperated sigh, stretching out her legs and back, and pointing her toes as she did. Even though Kyle was turned on…and, hell, she was too, she still wanted to talk about it first and foremost.
Maybe she was a little bit of a tease.
“Chico, nothing’s TMI for me,” she said, and rested her chin on her hand, almost mirroring him. “But my answer’s probably a little graphic, if you’re okay with that. I mean…I can see where Alex was coming from, lots of women have bad experiences with it or aren’t into it or whatever. I just happen to like it…permission to speak freely, sir?”
Maybe she was also a little bit of a geek. A little. Not a lot.
Kyle tilted his head from side to side, looking up as if he was assessing. “Sometimes I try to be as obtuse as possible, s’true. I find it helps others feel good about themselves. Smart, y’know? And self-esteem boosts are helpful for humans, so.” He saluted at her frowning, with a teasing smile. “Just doing my space cop duty, ma’am. Semper estupido!”
As she turned to face him, he traced the back of a finger along her arm. Dios, she felt so good. And tempting. Like touching fire. Kyle was really glad they’d gotten to this stage, where he didn’t feel like he shouldn’t touch her. He treasured human contact too much.
“Graphic’s good, I mean, heyyyyy. C’mon. I’m me…” Kyle then looked up at her, slightly worried. It wasn’t wasn’t going to get too weird, was it? No, it was Kate. She wouldn’t say anything just for the sake of shock value, not to him. He grinned as she turned the chain o’ command back at him, and held his hand out. “Proceed, Ms Spencer,” he said sternly and generously, using his Honor Guard Training Officer voice.
Kate’s gaze flicked upwards, eyes laughing at him. “Just as long as you’ve figured out that obtuseness gets you mierda para todos with me, Lantern Rayner,” she said, then considered how best to explain this to Kyle. It wasn’t exactly an easy topic, and she didn’t want him to think it was ever consistent across the board for women. Not that Kyle was quite that obtuse, but still.
To be honest, with this, she actually wasn’t fucking with him. Teasing, even sexualy, maybe, but definitely not saying it to stun him or weird him out. “Yessir,” she added in response to The Voice, and winked.
“I don’t know,” Kate said. Somehow she wanted him to touch her again, but at the same time this would be a lot simpler if he just listened, and she tried to reconcile the conflict as she spoke. “I mean, I know lots of women think it sucks, but for me…it’s so damn intimate. You have to take it carefully, but getting to that point feels so good, and by then you want it so badly that being filled like that, sharing that—it’s bittersweet, just a little bit dirty and wrong, and you’re doing it together…”
She chewed her lower lip.
“And fuck, when someone moves that deep, nice and slow…mierda,” she muttered, face darkening with a flush. “They say you can’t feel it, but you do, know just how they fit inside you. And for me, I…come different, so fucking hard and primal that I’m trembling for ages afterwards.”
Rubbing her face with her free hand, she blinked a couple of times, clearing her throat. “Sorry, you did ask.”
Kyle let his head slip from his hand, resting it instead on his outstretched bicep as he listened. He toyed with a tendril of Kate’s hair - just the end, just for the sensation rather than the sensuality. He looked at her neck as she spoke, the way certain words or hitches of breath made the skin and cords jump or roll through.
When she was finished and - Madre de dios, Kate Spencer apologizing for her self-consciousness?! - Kyle looked up at her, slightly indignant. “Oh don’t be sorry! It - I mean, how you talk about it - makes it sound really…well. Yeah.” It was now Kyle’s turn for his cheeks to turn a little red and he wobbled sheepishly. “Don’t laugh at me for this, but you make it sound really romantic. I get the intimacy, I have to admit,” Kyle looked wry, feeling more and more comfortable as he talked, “With Alex, it was kind of a lot of laughing on my part and hilarious reprimands on her part. But it did…”
Kyle’s focus went blurry for a while, as he tried to remember. There was so much about his life with Alex that he blocked out, it felt kind of cathartic talking to Kate about things, even sexy things. In a lot of ways, Kyle realized, Kate reminded him of Alex. That immediate comfort and complacency he had with Alex, he felt that again, this time with Kate. “…it did feel good. For me. I didn’t really ask her to do it again, and she never asked, but.” Kyle tickled his fingers underneath the sharp angle of Kate’s jaw. “But I think I know what you mean.” He shrugged and broke out into a wide grin. “‘Course, I pretty much came like thirty seconds after she, uh…got it in me. Boy did she yell at me for that. But all the prep work, it felt really…” he frowned, is memories starting to fill in now. “It felt really good.”
He sat up, suddenly feeling re-energized. Leaning forward to push his forehead against her shoulder,Kyle then put on his smirkiest, sleaziest smile. “Sooooo, nina, why don’t you let me tap that culo, I uh…” Kyle forgot the rest of what Kate said, so he gleefully improvised. “I’ll let you tap this culo right back.”
“Madre di dios, Kyle,” Kate said. She tried not to laugh, but only for one brief and futile moment. “Oh my god, you so fail at being a bro. Like, I can’t see it ever working for you. It’s like if I was all ohhhh papi ponga su verga en mi…” She escalated into a high pitched voice, but only for a moment before looking wryly amused.
“As for the culo…can I take a raincheck?” she asked, turning a bit dark in the cheeks again. “I am interested in negotiating a reciprocal agreement, Lantern Rayner,” she said in Lawyer Voice with a smirk, then shifted to the conversational tone, “but it is so not something for a day this hot. Sex when it’s sticky like this…needs to be sweet and easy, sabes?”
She was already slipping a hand under Kyle’s shirt as she said this, fingers tracing the planes of his stomach and chest. It made it pretty clear that Kate wasn’t turning down a romp entirely.
Kyle gave her the ‘oh come ON’ look when she did her…well he could only describe it as a Porn Voice. Dios. He was trying to be funny, but her saying that…not so much funny as really hot. Kate had a lot of great voices that she used; and Kyle wasn’t going to deny the fact that Porn Voice made his dick jump, just a bit.
He nodded, swallowing hard. “De nada,” Kyle said easily, not really disappointed. Not with her hands roaming so freely under his shirt. Right now he’d pretty much agree to anything Kate said to him.
Making a low noise of pleasure, Kyle took hold of her hand and used his weight to push her onto her back. He settled himself on top of her and he caught her other hand and held them both up over her head. He nosed around her face, not quite touching, but getting high off the charged energy between them. It didn’t stop him from grinding their hips together in a slow rhythm. “Sweet and easy, si,” Kyle said softly by her ear, blowing at the light tendrils of her hair. “We can do that.”
Were it not for the fact that Kyle was speaking in her ear, was pressing his hips down against hers, Kate totally would have given him hell for being turned on by the Porno Voice. Instead, she was too busy pushing up into him, seeking as much contact as she could get in this situation.
God, she loved being held down like that. Only with someone she trusted this implicitly, it was true—sexy, yeah, but not something she put up with casually—but still, it made her so damn wet, made her clench and ache.
“Didn’t necessary mean slow, carito,” she murmured, then groaned and shifted against him. In the end, she ended up doing the only thing she could do with him holding her back, spreading her legs to catch one of his between hers. Breathing hard, she moved her hips upwards, ass flexing, so that she could grind even harder against his thigh, still taking it carefully rather than frantically. “Not after the way you’ve been looking at me, not after how hard your cock feels.”
Hm. How would creativity take to dirty talk?
Kyle drew his breath in sharply and bit his lip, reveling in the feel of her rubbing and pushing against his thigh. He made a “Unnf” noise when she talked dirty like that and his eyes flared open, staring at Kate with excited intensity. Dios. Dios. “Dios, you make me this hard, Ms Spencer,” Kyle breathed.
With his free hand, he took hold of her knee and pushed it out, as far as her leg would go. He angled himself so he could slip his hand between her legs, over her capris. He eyebrows lifted, looking pleased. “And don’t I already make you all kinds of wet and ready, eh mami?” Kyle pulled back momentarily, looking her up and down, the way she was completely laid out for him, the way she could knock him over quite easily with her restless legs…but she chose not too. She chose not to.
He licked his lips. “I like seeing you like this,” he rasped, dragging his fingers hard up from between her legs, slipping under her top and flipping her bra up over her breasts. “You’re all…cachonda, ayyy.” Kyle teased one free nipple, running his fingers underside her breast and then back up, pinching hard. He lowered his head and kissed at her other breast through her top, sucking in cloth and nipple and swiping with his tongue.
Kate groaned, spreading her legs even further as Kyle touched her, felt the damp patch of cotton between her thighs. She bit her lip as he moved away; she’d just been about to grind down onto his hand a little more—yeah, the effort to get some more satisfaction would have been futile but so good.
As he looked at her, she smiled, secretively, and made plans to top the hell out of him one of these days. Only until he bent down to suck on her nipple through her shirt, the warmth and friction only just enough to sharpen her appetite. Unfortunately, getting her hands free would have defeated the whole purpose of the game, so instead she made a low, aching noise in her throat, designed to go straight to his cock.
“Oh, god, ese,” she moaned, voice rough and hoarse, and shifted one leg to bend it at the knee and draw herself up against him. “So cruel. I’m so wet, I need it so bad.”
Which was true, even if she was overdoing it on purpose and both of them knew it.
“Mmmm,” Kyle growled low, feeling that wonderful delirious rush he always got when he was touching Kate all over. “Move up on me like that again, mami,” Kyle lurched up and bit lightly at her neck and jaw. He half-grinned, but oh Madre was it a turn-on to hear her talk like that. “And I’ll give it to you, bonito y duro….fuck,” Kyle kissed her finally, but made a noise of frustration over her tongue. His cock was straining against his pants and it was starting to hurt, but he was running out of hands.
Getting up and kneeling over her, Kyle released Kate and undid his jeans as he nodded at her to undo her trousers. Kate cooperated, moving all slinky. Her eyes were hooded as she looked up at him, bruised almost. Her fingers worked fast on her trousers though, and once they were past her hips, Kyle scraped his fingers into the elastic band of her underwear and pulled it all off, Kate’s legs kicking out.
“Turn around,” Kyle scooped her under her ass and flipped Kate over, dragging her hips up towards him. “Mmm, Kate…” he sounded approving. Kate from behind was almost as sexy as Kate from the front. Almost lazily, Kyle pressed his fingers along her arching back, all the way down to the crevice of her pompis. “Just wanted to get a teaser of the eventual goods, y’know,” Kyle said, laughing just a bit. He didn’t mind sounding silly, not when he was touching her right down there. And she felt oh…so hot.
“Oh, a teaser, is that it?” Kate asked with a wry snort. She wriggled out of her shirt and bra, shivering at Kyle’s touch—remarkably soft touch, really, considering how turned on both of them were. She arched her back, pressed her ass back against him, needing to feel more, his cock pressed up against her skin. “Sneak preview, coming este verano to a bedroom near you.”
She looked back over her shoulder at him, brushing her hair back, then rocked forward to push her hips up higher. After she did, shifting a little to drag her nipples against the cotton of the bed, she spread her legs a little further, knees digging into the mattress, so he could see a hell of a lot more than just her ass. From her expression, she knew exactly what the expression on his face meant.
“Come on, ese,” she said, licking her lips. “I know you’ve got a box of condoms under that pile of clothes, and I know you’re so hard you can barely think. You need to green magic some of both over here and into me, or I’m just going to give up and use my own hand, I want it that bad. Comprende?”
Kate pushing against him like that, wet and hot against his already painfully hard cock…well all he could do was obey at this point. “Si, mami,” Kyle said, hisvoice rushed. He stroked himself a couple times, and satisfied, Kyle pulled his box of condoms from behind the mattress. “I’ll take care of you, carina,” he grinned crooked as he rolled the condom on. “So you keep your hands where I can see ‘em.”
And with that, came this:
Because Kyle was so damned hot for Kate, he spanked her a couple times as he pushed into her and his roaming fingers left bruises on her hips and back.
Kate hadn’t fully realized just how horny she was, not really, until Kyle moved into her. She could feel that she’d been right, that he was hard enough that it had to be nearly painful, and she smirked to herself.
The expression, however, only lasted a few seconds. After a moment, she gasped and bit her lip at the sting to her ass, but only twitched away from it for a second before the thrusts made her push it back up into the air against his hips. The change in position meant that his balls and cock slid up against her clit every time he moved in deep. The drag of friction made her back arch, and she moaned, rubbing against the sheets and dragging her nails against the fabric.
“You better take care of me,” she breathed, clenching down around him. “Oh, mierda, Kyle cariño, please, your cock feels so good. Needed someone to fill me up.”
Frankly, she was only being slightly hyperbolic. After their pretty frank discussion, there was no way she could have made it through the rest of the day without something more.
“You like that, huh? Like how that feels?” Kyle arched, giving his hips more lean against her ass, so he could bottom out inside of Kate, and…”ohhh mami, you feel so fucking sweet, dios….” And Kate made a loud, animal-like gasp that prompted Kyle to echo her. He had to concentrate to not just lose it and orgasm right now. Not yet not yet. He folded over her, letting his head rest momentarily against her back.
“Dios you are making me loco, Kate. Just makes me want to fuck you until you aren’t able to walk…” Kyle grinned against her back as he pushed his cock into her again. “But I don’t know if Ollie would like it if I returned you like that.” Kyle knew he was stepping in the hella red saying that, but hey; he had a firm hold on Kate’s hips, and he was buried hilt-deep into her as she rocked helplessly against him; no time like the present to get away with smart-mouth.
Despite the fact that Kate was not in much of a position to retort (and god, she was close, he felt so good, so deep that it made her growl each time he moved), she did have enough presence of mind to lift one arm, reach back, and scratch Kyle hard on the thigh.
“Miro tu boca o te escariar el culo,” she hissed, tone both amused and warning, punctuated by gasps, “and I’ll love every fucking second of watching you writhe under me, that pretty little ass.”
And thinking of that…mierda. She used her free hand to reach between her legs, stroke her clit, and she could feel him moving into her as she did—yeah, she would definitely need to get him back for that crack—for a moment, then two, before she came. It was rough and violent, and she tossed her hair back before it fell in her face again, tempted to bite the sheets. “Fuck, Kyle,” she hissed, riding it out and bucking under him.
“Ah Di — oh Dios,” Kyle stuttered helplessly from Kate’s threats. Or were they promises? Kyle’s thought processes shorted out as Kate’s words sketched out into his mind. He came right then, grinding hard into her instinctively as he felt her fingers flicking along her clit. His hands gripped her hips so tightly he pulled her knees off the bed, and her feet curled against his thighs for purchase. Kyle winced a bit, her shin grazing where she scratched him. He didn’t even realize how bad she’d gotten him until right then, and oooh it felt kind of nice. Like fire.
“Si mami, ride it out,” Kyle cooed, accommodating Kate shoved and slammed herself against him. Christ she looked so deliciously undone like this, and if his energy wasn’t almost totally tapped, it would’ve been enough to make him hard again, inside her. One final shove from Kate made his knees buckle. He fell back, but on instinct he grasped her tightly and swung her up, so she straddled his lap. He reached up and roughly turned her head to face his, catching her mouth with his own as she shuddered through the last jolts of her orgasm.
Everything released and slowly relaxing, they fell bonelessly sideways, Kyle laughing all the way down. “Hoooleeeeey….”
Fuck, Kate could feel him come, and it made her buck up hard into her own orgasm, clenching around him and thrusting back. Despite it lasting for several long, delicious seconds, she came down from it as quickly as it had come on in the first place.
Loose and exhausted, she let Kyle pull her up against him, hissing and gritting her teeth as he tugged on her hair, before kissing him firmly, if distractedly solely because she couldn’t focus on anything at all, couldn’t even muster energy to push her hair out of her face and his.
“Fucking hell,” she breathed, and couldn’t help herself, starting to laugh as well as she pulled her leg out from underneath him, shivering at the last few jolts of orgasm as she moved. Otherwise her heel would dig into his kidney, which wouldn’t be sexy at all. “That was fucking hot, ese.”
His room wasn’t much to look at. There was a mattress on the floor, some scattered heaps of clothes (not much) and an array of art supplies lined up on one side of the wall. On the wall facing the bed, a myriad of pencil and black paint scrawled on the white paint, forming what Kate could only guess was the start of a giant mural painting.
Kyle turned to her with a sigh of relief. “Sorry for the rushing. I’ll give you the grand tour later. Right now I’m just trying to dodge oncoming red-headed storm clouds.” He went to the other side of his ‘bed’ and retrieved a couple beers from the mini-fridge. “Oh ah haaaa, not really much place to sit, huh?” Kyle said, kicking the forlorn blanket on the bed so that Kate could sit down. Kyle’s shoulders slumped. “I’m not usually like this, when I’m at home. I just want you to know that. I CAN live like a grown-up.”
“Grand tour plus an explanation,” Kate said, crossing her arms and leaning against the non-painted/penciled wall until Kyle indicated she could sit down. She slid down onto the mattress, kicking off her sandals and accepting the cold Corona. Twisting open the cap, she continued, “We need to get you to Pottery Barn. Or more like IKEA, Pottery Barn is muy yuppie for you, but better than the flophouse look.”
Her expression grew pointed as she kicked her legs out, pointed her toes for a moment, then took a sip of beer. “What’s with all the cloak and dagger shit, Kyle? You look like you’ve been through the wringer—more than what I’d expect. I know losing your mom has been really hard, but Ollie said you were holding up okay when he saw you last week, and I’m guessing it’s not just that you and Guy are having a Mommy And Daddy Are Just Disagreeing Honey fight over League politics. That’s not something you’d lose this much sleep over.”
As usual, Kate didn’t look like she’d accept a dodge as an answer. “Something you would sneak me through your own damn place to avoid, you being one huge chico de evitativo,” she added, as a verbal nudge. “But not completely keep from getting your house in order.”
Seeing Kate make herself comfortable on the mattress made Kyle collapse onto his side, a little behind her. Just in case she wanted a back rest at some point. He braced his elbow on a pillow and propped his head up so he could face her.
“I have no intention of keeping anything from you, hermana. Let’s see where to start…since we last talked.” Kyle took a gulp of his beer and contemplated the small sliver of Kate’s skin that peeked between her shirt and capris. “I brought Connor back, after finally hearing from him. Thanks to Ollie, of course. But he and I…kind of ended it. Well, whatever we had. It think it was for the best.” Kyle looked up at Kate, realizing that he actually had someone who would give a damn about his feelings about this. Not that Guy didn’t care, but he was just…carefully supportive. Kate on the other hand, had seen Connor and Kyle’s dance from the get-go. She knew.
Kyle compulsively reached out and took Kate’s free hand, manipulating it so he could press his mouth against her knuckles. She smelled warm and sunny, just like he’d expected. “It’s been…difficult. But I know it’s for the best. I could never make him happy.”
It felt a little like the stereotypical after school/sleepover kind of girl talk, lying around like this, though Kate wouldn’t have told Kyle that for the world. Maybe more like her time in college, instead. (Complete with the slight frisson of sexual tension, even, enjoyable as it was—Kate had had a very specific kind of college experience.) She was so damn lucky that even in the ridiculous meta-super-capey life, she could have friends like him.
“About time you realized that feeding me a line gets you nowhere, chico,” she said, slurping some beer, then pausing mid-swig as she processed what he was telling her. Slowly she set the beer down, clutching it between her legs (cold, ow) and reaching out to put her newly-free hand against Kyle’s cheek as he kissed her fingers. “Dios, I’m sorry, ese. I had no idea, I shouldn’t have given you shit about this place and all of that—I know you love him.”
She felt guilty, even though she didn’t know if she should or not. Not that she was going to mention it right now.
“It’s true,” Kyle said feeling content, his voice muffled by her palm. He’d learned by know that Kate was somehow a very calming presence for him, even if half the time he was hot for her. But in a calming way. It made sense to him, anyway.
“And I do love him. But it’s honestly not just about me not being good enough for him. It just…it wouldn’t work out.” Kyle found couldn’t stop thinking about Guy and Tora, but that wasn’t his story to tell. And besides: on the other side or Guy and Tora, there was Hal and Ollie. Kyle supposed maybe he fell somewhere between ‘married to the job’ Lantern and ‘looking to settle down’ Lantern. He could deal with that. “Gracias, Kate. Ahaha, and in return for listening to my woes, you can totally rag on me for the state of this room! Es muy patético, yo sabes, sabes.”
Kyle held her hand momentarily before launching onto his stomach, using his ring to pull some paints and things over to the mattress. He began sorting through them, looking back at her every now and then. “I’m kind of just assuming you’re doing a-okay with your relationship situation? Si? Don’t wanna make an ass of you and me,” Kyle laughed at the stupidity of that tired joke.
“You don’t want to talk about why it wouldn’t work out, I’m guessing,” Kate said. She stroked his cheek for a second—somewhere between motherly and romantic—before picking up her beer again. After drinking from it again, she ticked a fingernail against the printed-on logo, unable to achieve her usual MO of peeling the label off. Thanks, Corona people.
“I’ll give you a little bit of a break from the ragging, all things considered, but you seriously, seriously need some help in here,” she noted, watching Kyle sort through paints. “You and Guy make up, you go to IKEA, you call me and say ‘Kaaaate, muchacha, pasé mucho dinero, esto no encaja en nuestro coche,’ and I come down and take some of your shit back here for you.”
Kate had been people’s IKEA backup before. You always, always bought more than you meant to.
“My relationship’s fine,” she said, and her cheeks darkened just a little. “I’m…I’ve got crash space of my own in Star City now. Still living here, never leaving, but I’ve got a home there, now, too. With Ollie.”
Kyle took a moment to roll in laughter at the idea of having to call Kate with over-spending woes at IKEA. He collapsed on his back and scratched at his stomach, looking at her like a pleased cat. ”That was a really good impression! I’m gonna have to come up with one for you, you just wait. And don’t worry, I’m getting there with Guy. I think he just needed to stomp around for a while and let me know just how angry he was. Chico is as sensitive as a gir….” Kyle trailed off as he watched Kate’s Patented Eyebrow Raise of Disapproval (TM) start. “…errrr I mean, as a baby! He’s as sensitive as an ungendered, neutral baby. Don’t let him know I said that, por favor.”
He listened to Kate’s assessment of herself, struggling to sit up in alarm when he heard about her new home in Star City. Okay, but she wasn’t saying she was leaving LA, just…okay. Kyle nodded consideringly. “I guess that makes sense, I mean. You have to do something to upkeep long distance relationships other than meeting up in the station in the sky. As long as you don’t leave Los Angeles, si? Me gusta usted aquí. Why do you think I bullied Guy into choosing LA? Hey! I could always fly you there, too! Rayner Air, all the way. Best way to fly.”
“Look, I know what happens at IKEA. You end up walking out with amazing and useless stuff like pony-shaped cake pans.” This may have happened to Kate at one point. Maybe. She’d thought Ramsey would like them…or that had been her excuse. “And what happens at IKEA does stay at IKEA. But I eagerly await your impression, muchacho,” she added, crossing her arms, beer in hand still. “And you and Guy Getting Over Yourselves, because one of these days in the near future, I want to spend the day reading on the beach and then come into your bar with both of you running it, how it should be.”
She nodded her approval at Kyle’s correction, eyes narrowed (though she thought it was a little rich, coming from him), then slugged more of her beer. “The station’s a little cold, you know?” she said. “Which can be sexy, in a way, but not all of the time. I’m not gonna leave LA. I was born and raised here, it’s la patria. And…”
Leaning in, she winked at him and picked up some silver paint. “I’m totally all about flying Rayner Air. Pretty damn amazing, if you ask me.” Innuendo entirely optional.
“Pony…shaped…boy I haven’t been to IKEA in a while. Jenny was obsessed with the big blue box; so believe me I can dig heading in with a couple hundred spending bucks and leaving with five gees worth of useless crap, that I have to assemble and which breaks a year later.” Kyle made a face, but then again, Jenny always did reward him for using his manly assembly skills. IKEA was good times.
Kyle was quiet for a moment as he imagined the wide variety of one-piece and two-piece numbers that Kate might potentially sport on the beach. Coupled with her mentioning the Watchtower he thought back to their drawing session…he licked his lips and his eyes drifted to look at her breasts. And no one could miss the meaning behind her last comment. He curled a lazy, heated smile at her, almost tempted to pull her on top of him and break his new mattress in.
But then Kate selected a pot of silver paint, and Kyle shook his head, clearing it of beery thoughts and that citrusy Kate-scent that made his mouth water.
He stood himself up, looking back at the wall. “So I was looking through some old Beatles albums that Guy had - records, can you believe it? That Guy - and it inspired me,” Kyle motioned up at the wall-sketches. “But I can’t decide between, like. Mega-psychadelic? Or clean black and white line art.” He turned to her. “What do you think?”
“That’s what IKEA is for, chico.” Kate tried to drink from her beer nonchalantly, though that was easier said than done. The dry heat of Kyle’s smile, his expression for that brief moment. tempted her to flick her tongue against the lip of the bottle. She did it, but only once, before the guilt came back—maybe it’s your fault things didn’t work out for them, Kate—and she stopped herself.
Damn it.
“Guy? Beatles? Either way…clean black and white line art,” she said, fingering open the tub of paint, dipping her fingertips in, “with splashes of color. Small ones. You know, I always wondered what it’d be like to just put silver paint all over myself, look like I was made of metal? Kind of weird, I know.”
Kyle was nodding in approval and looking up at the wall when she advised black and white. She was right. As much as Kyle loved colour, he was pretty sure having it blaring on his wall at the foot of his bed would likely start to irritate him after a while. He still wanted something along the lines of ROY G BIV, if only as an homage to the Lanterns; and Kate’s suggestion of light spectrum color accents sounded perfecto. “Tienes razón. Gracias, Kate. I think—”
Kyle stopped himself; or rather, he completely forgot what he was going to say when he turned back to look at her as she contemplated painting herself silver, two of her long fingers now dripping in the mercury-tinted paint. “I think…” Kyle floundered, his vision going slightly blurry. “I painted Alex once,” he said, for the sake of something to say. “She wanted to be like from the movie Goldfinger, y’know. I pretended to be Bond…” Kyle grinned at the memory. “It looked really good.” Kyle bit at his bottom lip, because of course now all he could imagine was a sleek, silvery Kate. Every bit of her. Dios.
“De nada,” Kate said automatically. “I guess I just don’t know what you’re thinking about painting—more abstract, or something representational, but the color works either way, no te parece? I mean, you’re gonna have to look at it until you get used to it as part of the room.”
She dabbed one silvery finger against one of the knuckles clutching the bottle, leaving a streak against her skin. “This isn’t body paint, of course,” she mused. “You know, you have done waaaay too much kinky shit for someone your age, ese, though you probably know that that’s bullshit, the whole suffocating someone in paint. I saw it on Mythbusters once.”
He was looking at her again, and all she could do was smirk. Maybe she was winding him up a little, to distract him from being so damn miserable. “I don’t know if I’d want to be all silver. Just strategically painted.”
Kyle blinked disbelievingly at Kate, about to ask how she could notknow what he wanted to paint, when it was all here! Realized in carefully drawn pencils and black tape! …But then he remembered that what he drew on the walls probably’d just looked like a mess of grey and black to anyone else but him. He nodded complacently and came around to sit down beside her, using some green light globules to illuminate and pull at the paint on her fingers, making it look more like droplets of mercury pooling against her skin.
“No no no, I wouldn’t use this on you, though I did buy it for how pretty it looked,” Kyle said, feeling subdued in a very pleasant way as he manipulated the paint to slide around her fingers in tendrils. He shook his head. “I totally bought into that urban legend, then. I think you’d look you’d look extraordinaria in all silver…” He sheeted the paint out in green light, gilding her hand in both. “Like…” Kyle grinned and nudged her, teasing. “Like a really sexy Terminator.”
If Kate squinted at the wall, she could maybe see some of what Kyle was going for, though she didn’t really understand it yet. Despite her best efforts, she wasn’t really as artistic as she wanted to be. Creative, maybe, but artistic…not so much. Idly, she held her hand up, looking at the green-tinged silver running against her skin in a detached and fascinated way, almost like the scene in Terminator 2 where T-1000 was in the form of John Connor’s foster mom.
Kate was possibly more geeky than she let on, or really overly fond of action movies. Or both.
She broke character and smiled. “I’m not that violent, ese,” she pointed out, but flicked her fingers at him, like she was wearing the silver like a glove. “Maybe sometime you can paint me, though this isn’t really the place for it.”
“Ah-poosh,” Kyle supplied the gag reaction and the sound effect for her silvered glove-flick and then caught her hand, pulling the silver cleanly off and dripping it back into the pot. He felt kind of pleased when he noticed she seemed to recognize and accept the Terminator comparison; Kyle suspected there was an inner geek hidden behind the tough lawyer exterior. “I’d love to paint you silver. And then Donna could take pictures…” Kyle said that before thinking and he looked a little flustered. He busied himself with opening some more pots of paint and finding his paintbrushes and paint-markers.
“Are you developing some kinda anti-violence complex, Ms Spencer?” Kyle said, raising his eyebrows in mock-surprise. “This is the second - no maybe the third time you’ve ah….reiterated that to me.”
Laughing at Kyle’s ability to pick up on her impression, Kate cocked her head. “Pictures? As long as they didn’t end up on the internet and show up on TMZ, chico…though Ms. Troy is pretty amazing, I must concur.” She didn’t know why Kyle seemed nervous about the idea, though—well, she had some idea, but still, it wasn’t like she was going to make things awkward.
Uh. More awkward.
She slid to lie back down on the mattress, kicking one leg out in a stretch as she picked up some vermilion red paint next, watching him. “I’m not developing a complex,” she said. “I’m just making a point to the general public who think I’m the most bloodthirsty super-type on the West Coast. God forbid a woman be violent, they both love and hate that. It’s hot, but don’t get too nasty or you’re a crazy bitch.”
Kate turned the paint jar over and over in her hands, watching the red move. Maybe she was a little bitter.
“There’s that TMZ thing again. I really need to start watching more TV than old Simpsons reruns and Colbert. And…yeah. Donna is amazing…yeah. She is amazing. Mmm. MM-hmm…” Kyle gathered his artistically emotional shields to his chest and turned to watch Kate as she talked about her own personal trials being a woman. He looked sympathetic.
“I won’t say I understand how you feel, but I do get what you mean. All my exes got a lot of strife for being very…opinionated, in different ways.” His girlfriends also got strife for being older than him…which Kyle always found hypocritical to the max. “And when they fought back, it didn’t always work out, because…well. Because some guys can be real cabróns to women who stand up to them.” He paused, looking and sounding distressed for a moment.
Taking a breath, Kyle placed his tools on a green stand and came around to Kate, pulling her up off the bed. “Vamos, carina. I need your help with this.” He motioned to the wall mural. “Nothing better than some arts and crafts to make everything seem a bit more golden, y’know?” He opened the pot of vermillion she had in her hand, and hopefully twirled a paintbrush to her.
“Ugh, don’t start watching that shit, ese, it’ll make you have a stroke,” said Kate gently, her brow furrowing in concern. “I just keep an eye out for Ramsey’s sake, pretty much.” She wasn’t lost enough in her own frustration to not notice the way Kyle looked—she knew what had happened to Alex, for a start, and she felt terrible for bringing it back to him. Especially considering that things for him were already less than great. “And yeah. Some guys can. The world can be a shitty, shitty place.”
That’s why she did what she did. Hell, why Kyle did what he did, in a way.
She plucked the paintbrush out of the air, then wrapped her arm around Kyle’s shoulders, leaning in to kiss his cheek. “Come on,” she said, “let’s do some art. Things in here need to get a little more áureo, you’re right. Sabes?”
Kyle nodded, looking more than grateful at Kate taking the paintbrush. He liked the kiss even more, and then kissed her back on her cheek in return.
“You always know the best things to say. And do,” Kyle enthused, and bit on the end of his paintbrush as he regarded the mural wall, trying to find a good spot for Kate to start. There was a place in the upper left corner where Kyle had intended to convey heat, LA, action, Alex DeWitt and Kate Spencer. It would make sense for Kate to paint something that reminded Kyle of her. He flew up, laughing.
“Kate to paint,” he said out, amused by his own simplistic rhyme; then pointed to a shape and looked down at Kate. “Think you can start with the red up here, carina?” He created a green light step ladder for her, helping her climb up so he could show her the shape. “It’ll be like painting by numbers. No need to stay between the lines though, I can patch it up later.”
They painted for a while, Kyle really getting into it and really getting into Kate being like an assistant. For a moment he paused and flew back to survey his work, admiring the view of Kate studiously painting, now using silver. He smiled, feeling a warm shiver. It was all so…Frida. He loved that movie.
“Things between you and me are okay, right?” Kyle asked before he could stop himself. “I feel like when I brought Connor back, things kinda went…askew.”
“Yeah, tell that to mio ex esposo,” Kate noted wryly. “At least someone thinks I can do stuff right.” Even so, the thought pleased her, and she nimbly climbed the ladder, bare feet gripping each step with slightly curled toes. It had taken a while for her to get used to this whole Green Light Construction stuff, but she was mostly confident in it now, if only because Kyle was confident in himself.
After following orders (see, she could do that if it suited her; Kyle obviously knew better than she did how to paint in a way that didn’t look like shit, ergo) and painting the designated areas for a while, humming a little under her breath, she almost startled at his question. Almost. She was past getting startled by anything save someone landing on her, these days.
“I thought things were okay.” She finished the space she was painting first, carefully using the brush to catch a droplet of paint that was about to run over the line. Setting the palette and brush down, she leaned on the top of the ladder, looked down at him. “I’m not upset with you, Kyle. If anything, you should maybe be upset with me, but…yeah.”
Kyle frowned up at her; or rather past her, at the wall. He floated up and used the edge of his pinky finger to swipe some of Kate’s paintwork off into a cleaner line. He looked at her askance, more guarded that Kate was used to seeing the usually very open Kyle.
“Me upset at you? Why would I be?” Kyle looked back at her handiwork, nodding in approval. He wrung his hands absently, as if he was cleaning off paint with an imaginary rag. ”You’ve been nothing but incredible to me, Kate.”
“Because I did the whole smouldering temptress thing. Brought sexy back, though with less of an awesome hat than Justin had. Kyle…” Kate frowned back at him, brow furrowing. She slowly descended the ladder, then caught a finger under Kyle’s jaw to tilt his chin upwards so that he looked her in the eye. It left a faint smear of paint, transferred from that which had gotten onto her skin. “Tell me. What is it?”
It was pretty close to The Voice that she’d told Dick about. Kyle should have known by now that Kate Spencer didn’t enable his avoidant tendencies.
Kyle huffed a laugh, looking somewhat incredulous but in a affectionate, amused way. ”Smoldering temptress? I like the idea of that…” He took her hand and turned so he could face her. “…but Dios, you didn’t do anything wrong. And quite frankly, I don’t think I did either. I still don’t see how I could’ve been -” Kyle used air quotes, rolling his eyes slightly “-‘cheating on’ someone who left me. Even when we talked about it, Connor and I; I felt sorry I hurt him, but I didn’t really get why he was hurt. I dunno…I guess maybe I make things complicated for other people, when it’s all really kinda simple up here.” Kyle tapped his temple, and then brushed some of Kate’s hair that was falling in her eyes.
He kissed her forehead, breathing in her scent at the same time. “I’m sorry you’re feeling bad, carina. I’ll understand if you wanna y’know, take a step back or something. You do have a lot on your plate right now anyway.” He laughed apologetically, rubbing the back of his neck. “Not that I don’t think you can’t handle a lot more!”
“Didn’t you ever see Moulin Rouge?” asked Kate, letting Kyle take her hand. She noted the smear of palm-tree green paint under his chin with amusement. “The new one, that is—Ollie would want me to tell you that, because apparently they made films before 1963. Though I’m hardly Nicole Alabaster Kidman…”
She squeezed his hand for a moment. “I don’t think we did anything wrong either, though I can sort of see Connor’s POV even though I think he’s wrong about it. I mean, we’re friends. I love you, ese, though not like the going and dating kind of thing, and I’m glad we’re friends. You’re damn fun in the bedroom, and I can’t complain about that. I just…don’t want to be the person who fucked up a good thing for you, even if it wasn’t something I regret.”
Smirking at him, she added, gaze flicking up at him with a wink, “I hope you don’t get all put off hombres because of all of this. Though I figure some of us women can do nearly all of the stuff they can…” She did still have the right equipment, somewhere.
Kyle lit up. “Oh hey yeah, I loved that movie! I only saw it once, though, it was a long time ago. I liked the songs…” Kyle rubbed his face, then looked surprised to see paint come off from his chin. He touched his painted finger on her bare shoulder, fascinated with how the green looked against her brown skin. Grass and earth…bonita.
He nodded and looked increasingly content and pleased with Kate’s assessment of their relationship. “You didn’t fuck up nada, muchacha. Honestly I had things sorted in two categories in my head and…well. Anyway. No point replaying the past; what I’m trying to say is, that’s all over and this is now and me complace, comprende?”
He shrugged when she brought up loving on other hombres, looking consideringly off in the distance. “I dunno, Kate,” Kyle said seriously. “I know I loved Connor, deeply, but that whole sex with a…guy…I…” Kyle drifted off, his smile going lopsided. Was she saying what he thought she was? “Hehhhhh. Yeah. You sure are right about that, Kate.”
Kate turned and looked at her shoulder, crooking her head as best she could to see the smudge of paint. “We need to get you a crash course in pop culture, muchacho. Maybe Mia’s willing to lend you some DVDs or something, because you are so missing out.”
She wandered over and opened the minifridge to get another pair of beers out from it. “Look, I’m…I’m sorry this happened, that things didn’t work out for you and Connor. But I’m definitely not sorry about what we did. Or what we might do, si…”
The expression on Kyle’s face, though, made her grin, and she came back over to hand him a beer with a soft cold slap of glass to his hand. “Look, maybe if you find some other guy sometime, maybe the sex’ll seem all right. But hey…I didn’t know you were into that kind of thing. Tried it, yeah, but…”
Kate opened her beer and took a long swig with a smile on her face. It was the look of the metaphorical cat with the canary.
“Mia did marathon me through Powerpuff Girls,” Kyle said, turning around to watch Kate as went to his mini-fridge. He appreciated the way she crossed her legs at her ankles before she bent down to fetch the beers. “I guess I’m sorry too…I’m sorry I lost a good friend in all of this. I’m sorry about that more than anything. AS for whatever ‘relationship’ beyond friendship that we had, well. It didn’t last long enough for me to miss it, so. That’s that.”
He twisted the cap off the beer, swaying his hips only slightly as he looked at her take a long, cool drink. He mirrored her drinking, not breaking her eye contact. “I’m willing to do anything for the right woman, carina. I figured you knew that by now.” Kyle held his breath…and there it was. Kate’s small pink tongue, darting out to lick her lips. Kyle exhaled, a little choppy.
“Man cannot live on Powerpuff Girls alone,” Kate intoned solemnly, before drinking a little more of her beer. She was glad, though, that Kyle and Mia would still be friends…and hell, she was fairly certain Ollie wasn’t about to kill him, either. Good stuff. (Though she did wonder how much of Ollie not killing him was for her sake.) “Dios, I wish I could just stream Hulu into your head…can’t you just be like, ‘Ring, get me about twenty episodes of Battlestar Gal…’” She paused. “Wait, then again, that might seem a little tame after the real thing. Good TV, though.”
The hip sway, and the slight sigh as Kyle exhaled, didn’t escape her notice, and she pursed her lips around the lip of the bottle before swigging again and leaning against the (unpainted, not the mural) wall. “Dare I ask what you mean by ‘the right woman’, ese?” she said. “It’s a pity this kind of thing takes a small chunk of planning and investment, it’s so damn fun, and it’s such a warm afternoon…”
God, it was way too easy to fuck with Kyle, and he was so damn willing to be fucked with.
“Battlestar Galactica?” Kyle laughed incredulously. “Next you’re gonna tell me you’ve watched all of Doctor Who as well!” He whapped his beer lightly against her forearm. “You are such a fangeek! The last series I saw till the end was…Xena? Or Buffy. Maybe Alias? One of those. All awesome. After that I just…kinda stopped. I’m a bad fanboy, I know I know. Jenny and I had plans to like, marathon through shows as they came out on DVD, but then, y’know. Life happened.”
“The right woman…! Y’know what I mean…” Kyle huffed again and grinned up at the ceiling, feeling uncharacteristically shy. He bounced his hip against hers to break out of it, trying to figure out what she meant by ‘planning’ and ‘investment’. When he realized, he scoffed. “Kate, I’m not trying to buy a house. Tengo este,” Kyle held up his fist with his ring. “And I have some uh…supplies that Roy lent - well, no not lent - gave to me. When I was still trying to navigate the whole Connor logistics, heh heh.”
Feeling all companionable and affectionate, Kyle looped his arm loosely around Kate’s waist letting the cold bottle brush against her skin as he kissed her, twice. He rested his forehead against hers. “So okkkay, maybe not today; but if the fancy ever strikes you carina, I’ll be ready.”
“I have my moments, I’ll admit that, Lantern Rayner,” Kate said, faking penitence by looking down and gently scuffing her toes against the floor, before looking up and grinning. “Ramsey likes Doctor Who, and Peter can’t stand it, so it’s our thing, okay? I’m not that much del friki, I just like the show. And, uh, some other shows. I don’t have a problem, I’m not gonna dress up at a convention with fake ears or anything.”
She smiled faintly then looked absolutely adorkable for a moment. Maybe that was a little too much protesting.
Leaning into Kyle, she smiled slowly, meeting his eyes with a raised brow before tugging him over to flop down on the bed, less in a let’s fuck way, more in a let’s be close way. “Oh, the fancy strikes me, all right,” she said, voice low, and probably it was a little of The Voice again, added in. “I just didn’t know if you’d be into it with me or you wanted something less casual for that kind of thing, sabes?”
Damn, there were some good mental images involved with this. She dragged her teeth against her upper lip before turning her attention to her beer.
There was the thrill down his spine again. Kyle was glad to feel it; it was likely that he’d never stop getting a thrill out of people - well, his friends and loved ones - calling him ‘Lantern Rayner’. Especially from friends and loved ones that he liked to get down on.
“I am remembering this moment forever,” Kyle murmured, wondrously. “When I found a woman who rivaled my own inner geek. Most. Awesome. Day.”
Kyle let himself flop back onto the mattress with Kate, and he pulled one of her legs up to rest against his thigh. He ran his hand up and down under her leg, as he grinned in approval at her. “I think you’re the perfect person to try all this out with, I mean…” Kyle studied her leg for a bit, his hand circling up her thigh to the curve of her ass, and then back down her leg to grip at her heel. “I mean, I’ve never tried it the other way, either. With a guy or a girl.” Kyle thinned his eyes and pursed his lips, looking speculative. “Huh. Funny how Alex convinced me to let her have her way with my culo, but not the other way around. That tricksy chica.”
“I am not that big a geek. At least I know all the main characters on The Office, Señor Went Off to Oa and Forgot About Relevant Pop Culture References.”
Kate would have been seriously amused to find herself in the category of ‘loved ones that Kyle liked to get down on’. As it was, she was still amused anyway, and then…well, surprised.
“You haven’t?” she asked, blinking, slightly startled, fingertips tapping at the glass of her beer. “Wait, you let Alex fuck you but you didn’t ever insist on giving it a try yourself? Admittedly, a considerable win for you as un feministo, there are too many pendejos who are all hey baby, why won’t you let me tap your ass, I can make it real good, and who are totally lying about that—they’re the guys who don’t know what they’re doing—but still. A little bit of a shocker.”
Kyle looked solemn, even repentant. “I look forward to my re-education as a functioning member of mainstream pop-culture society, Kate. Maybe then Mia will stop calling me a hipster.” Kyle didn’t yet tell Kate about the ‘illegal’ satellite constructs him and Guy were capable of creating. He’d show off later.
“And it wasn’t a feministo thing!” Kyle protested, although the more he thought about it the more he did like the idea of it fitting into being a good feminist. He lay on his back and looked up at the ceiling, pushing Kate’s leg a liiiitle closer to his knees. He could already feel the heat pouring off of her, and he didn’t want to be distracted by sex while talking about sex. Because somehow that made sense to him.
He tried to remember, but eventually he just shrugged. “Yeah I can’t say I know why, I mean. I’m pretty sure I must’ve asked her; and I’ll bet she seemed ‘meh’ and so that was that. Didn’t seem important, she had so many other ideas to keep us ocupado. And the other chicas I’ve slept with, well…I never asked. I kinda figured most women were ‘meh’ about it?” He propped his head up, to face at Kate. “I mean, what IS the appeal, for a woman? Chingado en culo?” Suddenly realizing what he was asking, Kyle sat up a bit more, looking alarmed. “Uh…is this getting too much TMI? Because I can totally redact.”
“If by hipster, she means deliberately obtuse, then si, si.” Kate let out a faux-exasperated sigh, stretching out her legs and back, and pointing her toes as she did. Even though Kyle was turned on…and, hell, she was too, she still wanted to talk about it first and foremost.
Maybe she was a little bit of a tease.
“Chico, nothing’s TMI for me,” she said, and rested her chin on her hand, almost mirroring him. “But my answer’s probably a little graphic, if you’re okay with that. I mean…I can see where Alex was coming from, lots of women have bad experiences with it or aren’t into it or whatever. I just happen to like it…permission to speak freely, sir?”
Maybe she was also a little bit of a geek. A little. Not a lot.
Kyle tilted his head from side to side, looking up as if he was assessing. “Sometimes I try to be as obtuse as possible, s’true. I find it helps others feel good about themselves. Smart, y’know? And self-esteem boosts are helpful for humans, so.” He saluted at her frowning, with a teasing smile. “Just doing my space cop duty, ma’am. Semper estupido!”
As she turned to face him, he traced the back of a finger along her arm. Dios, she felt so good. And tempting. Like touching fire. Kyle was really glad they’d gotten to this stage, where he didn’t feel like he shouldn’t touch her. He treasured human contact too much.
“Graphic’s good, I mean, heyyyyy. C’mon. I’m me…” Kyle then looked up at her, slightly worried. It wasn’t wasn’t going to get too weird, was it? No, it was Kate. She wouldn’t say anything just for the sake of shock value, not to him. He grinned as she turned the chain o’ command back at him, and held his hand out. “Proceed, Ms Spencer,” he said sternly and generously, using his Honor Guard Training Officer voice.
Kate’s gaze flicked upwards, eyes laughing at him. “Just as long as you’ve figured out that obtuseness gets you mierda para todos with me, Lantern Rayner,” she said, then considered how best to explain this to Kyle. It wasn’t exactly an easy topic, and she didn’t want him to think it was ever consistent across the board for women. Not that Kyle was quite that obtuse, but still.
To be honest, with this, she actually wasn’t fucking with him. Teasing, even sexualy, maybe, but definitely not saying it to stun him or weird him out. “Yessir,” she added in response to The Voice, and winked.
“I don’t know,” Kate said. Somehow she wanted him to touch her again, but at the same time this would be a lot simpler if he just listened, and she tried to reconcile the conflict as she spoke. “I mean, I know lots of women think it sucks, but for me…it’s so damn intimate. You have to take it carefully, but getting to that point feels so good, and by then you want it so badly that being filled like that, sharing that—it’s bittersweet, just a little bit dirty and wrong, and you’re doing it together…”
She chewed her lower lip.
“And fuck, when someone moves that deep, nice and slow…mierda,” she muttered, face darkening with a flush. “They say you can’t feel it, but you do, know just how they fit inside you. And for me, I…come different, so fucking hard and primal that I’m trembling for ages afterwards.”
Rubbing her face with her free hand, she blinked a couple of times, clearing her throat. “Sorry, you did ask.”
Kyle let his head slip from his hand, resting it instead on his outstretched bicep as he listened. He toyed with a tendril of Kate’s hair - just the end, just for the sensation rather than the sensuality. He looked at her neck as she spoke, the way certain words or hitches of breath made the skin and cords jump or roll through.
When she was finished and - Madre de dios, Kate Spencer apologizing for her self-consciousness?! - Kyle looked up at her, slightly indignant. “Oh don’t be sorry! It - I mean, how you talk about it - makes it sound really…well. Yeah.” It was now Kyle’s turn for his cheeks to turn a little red and he wobbled sheepishly. “Don’t laugh at me for this, but you make it sound really romantic. I get the intimacy, I have to admit,” Kyle looked wry, feeling more and more comfortable as he talked, “With Alex, it was kind of a lot of laughing on my part and hilarious reprimands on her part. But it did…”
Kyle’s focus went blurry for a while, as he tried to remember. There was so much about his life with Alex that he blocked out, it felt kind of cathartic talking to Kate about things, even sexy things. In a lot of ways, Kyle realized, Kate reminded him of Alex. That immediate comfort and complacency he had with Alex, he felt that again, this time with Kate. “…it did feel good. For me. I didn’t really ask her to do it again, and she never asked, but.” Kyle tickled his fingers underneath the sharp angle of Kate’s jaw. “But I think I know what you mean.” He shrugged and broke out into a wide grin. “‘Course, I pretty much came like thirty seconds after she, uh…got it in me. Boy did she yell at me for that. But all the prep work, it felt really…” he frowned, is memories starting to fill in now. “It felt really good.”
He sat up, suddenly feeling re-energized. Leaning forward to push his forehead against her shoulder,Kyle then put on his smirkiest, sleaziest smile. “Sooooo, nina, why don’t you let me tap that culo, I uh…” Kyle forgot the rest of what Kate said, so he gleefully improvised. “I’ll let you tap this culo right back.”
“Madre di dios, Kyle,” Kate said. She tried not to laugh, but only for one brief and futile moment. “Oh my god, you so fail at being a bro. Like, I can’t see it ever working for you. It’s like if I was all ohhhh papi ponga su verga en mi…” She escalated into a high pitched voice, but only for a moment before looking wryly amused.
“As for the culo…can I take a raincheck?” she asked, turning a bit dark in the cheeks again. “I am interested in negotiating a reciprocal agreement, Lantern Rayner,” she said in Lawyer Voice with a smirk, then shifted to the conversational tone, “but it is so not something for a day this hot. Sex when it’s sticky like this…needs to be sweet and easy, sabes?”
She was already slipping a hand under Kyle’s shirt as she said this, fingers tracing the planes of his stomach and chest. It made it pretty clear that Kate wasn’t turning down a romp entirely.
Kyle gave her the ‘oh come ON’ look when she did her…well he could only describe it as a Porn Voice. Dios. He was trying to be funny, but her saying that…not so much funny as really hot. Kate had a lot of great voices that she used; and Kyle wasn’t going to deny the fact that Porn Voice made his dick jump, just a bit.
He nodded, swallowing hard. “De nada,” Kyle said easily, not really disappointed. Not with her hands roaming so freely under his shirt. Right now he’d pretty much agree to anything Kate said to him.
Making a low noise of pleasure, Kyle took hold of her hand and used his weight to push her onto her back. He settled himself on top of her and he caught her other hand and held them both up over her head. He nosed around her face, not quite touching, but getting high off the charged energy between them. It didn’t stop him from grinding their hips together in a slow rhythm. “Sweet and easy, si,” Kyle said softly by her ear, blowing at the light tendrils of her hair. “We can do that.”
Were it not for the fact that Kyle was speaking in her ear, was pressing his hips down against hers, Kate totally would have given him hell for being turned on by the Porno Voice. Instead, she was too busy pushing up into him, seeking as much contact as she could get in this situation.
God, she loved being held down like that. Only with someone she trusted this implicitly, it was true—sexy, yeah, but not something she put up with casually—but still, it made her so damn wet, made her clench and ache.
“Didn’t necessary mean slow, carito,” she murmured, then groaned and shifted against him. In the end, she ended up doing the only thing she could do with him holding her back, spreading her legs to catch one of his between hers. Breathing hard, she moved her hips upwards, ass flexing, so that she could grind even harder against his thigh, still taking it carefully rather than frantically. “Not after the way you’ve been looking at me, not after how hard your cock feels.”
Hm. How would creativity take to dirty talk?
Kyle drew his breath in sharply and bit his lip, reveling in the feel of her rubbing and pushing against his thigh. He made a “Unnf” noise when she talked dirty like that and his eyes flared open, staring at Kate with excited intensity. Dios. Dios. “Dios, you make me this hard, Ms Spencer,” Kyle breathed.
With his free hand, he took hold of her knee and pushed it out, as far as her leg would go. He angled himself so he could slip his hand between her legs, over her capris. He eyebrows lifted, looking pleased. “And don’t I already make you all kinds of wet and ready, eh mami?” Kyle pulled back momentarily, looking her up and down, the way she was completely laid out for him, the way she could knock him over quite easily with her restless legs…but she chose not too. She chose not to.
He licked his lips. “I like seeing you like this,” he rasped, dragging his fingers hard up from between her legs, slipping under her top and flipping her bra up over her breasts. “You’re all…cachonda, ayyy.” Kyle teased one free nipple, running his fingers underside her breast and then back up, pinching hard. He lowered his head and kissed at her other breast through her top, sucking in cloth and nipple and swiping with his tongue.
Kate groaned, spreading her legs even further as Kyle touched her, felt the damp patch of cotton between her thighs. She bit her lip as he moved away; she’d just been about to grind down onto his hand a little more—yeah, the effort to get some more satisfaction would have been futile but so good.
As he looked at her, she smiled, secretively, and made plans to top the hell out of him one of these days. Only until he bent down to suck on her nipple through her shirt, the warmth and friction only just enough to sharpen her appetite. Unfortunately, getting her hands free would have defeated the whole purpose of the game, so instead she made a low, aching noise in her throat, designed to go straight to his cock.
“Oh, god, ese,” she moaned, voice rough and hoarse, and shifted one leg to bend it at the knee and draw herself up against him. “So cruel. I’m so wet, I need it so bad.”
Which was true, even if she was overdoing it on purpose and both of them knew it.
“Mmmm,” Kyle growled low, feeling that wonderful delirious rush he always got when he was touching Kate all over. “Move up on me like that again, mami,” Kyle lurched up and bit lightly at her neck and jaw. He half-grinned, but oh Madre was it a turn-on to hear her talk like that. “And I’ll give it to you, bonito y duro….fuck,” Kyle kissed her finally, but made a noise of frustration over her tongue. His cock was straining against his pants and it was starting to hurt, but he was running out of hands.
Getting up and kneeling over her, Kyle released Kate and undid his jeans as he nodded at her to undo her trousers. Kate cooperated, moving all slinky. Her eyes were hooded as she looked up at him, bruised almost. Her fingers worked fast on her trousers though, and once they were past her hips, Kyle scraped his fingers into the elastic band of her underwear and pulled it all off, Kate’s legs kicking out.
“Turn around,” Kyle scooped her under her ass and flipped Kate over, dragging her hips up towards him. “Mmm, Kate…” he sounded approving. Kate from behind was almost as sexy as Kate from the front. Almost lazily, Kyle pressed his fingers along her arching back, all the way down to the crevice of her pompis. “Just wanted to get a teaser of the eventual goods, y’know,” Kyle said, laughing just a bit. He didn’t mind sounding silly, not when he was touching her right down there. And she felt oh…so hot.
“Oh, a teaser, is that it?” Kate asked with a wry snort. She wriggled out of her shirt and bra, shivering at Kyle’s touch—remarkably soft touch, really, considering how turned on both of them were. She arched her back, pressed her ass back against him, needing to feel more, his cock pressed up against her skin. “Sneak preview, coming este verano to a bedroom near you.”
She looked back over her shoulder at him, brushing her hair back, then rocked forward to push her hips up higher. After she did, shifting a little to drag her nipples against the cotton of the bed, she spread her legs a little further, knees digging into the mattress, so he could see a hell of a lot more than just her ass. From her expression, she knew exactly what the expression on his face meant.
“Come on, ese,” she said, licking her lips. “I know you’ve got a box of condoms under that pile of clothes, and I know you’re so hard you can barely think. You need to green magic some of both over here and into me, or I’m just going to give up and use my own hand, I want it that bad. Comprende?”
Kate pushing against him like that, wet and hot against his already painfully hard cock…well all he could do was obey at this point. “Si, mami,” Kyle said, hisvoice rushed. He stroked himself a couple times, and satisfied, Kyle pulled his box of condoms from behind the mattress. “I’ll take care of you, carina,” he grinned crooked as he rolled the condom on. “So you keep your hands where I can see ‘em.”
And with that, came this:
Because Kyle was so damned hot for Kate, he spanked her a couple times as he pushed into her and his roaming fingers left bruises on her hips and back.
Kate hadn’t fully realized just how horny she was, not really, until Kyle moved into her. She could feel that she’d been right, that he was hard enough that it had to be nearly painful, and she smirked to herself.
The expression, however, only lasted a few seconds. After a moment, she gasped and bit her lip at the sting to her ass, but only twitched away from it for a second before the thrusts made her push it back up into the air against his hips. The change in position meant that his balls and cock slid up against her clit every time he moved in deep. The drag of friction made her back arch, and she moaned, rubbing against the sheets and dragging her nails against the fabric.
“You better take care of me,” she breathed, clenching down around him. “Oh, mierda, Kyle cariño, please, your cock feels so good. Needed someone to fill me up.”
Frankly, she was only being slightly hyperbolic. After their pretty frank discussion, there was no way she could have made it through the rest of the day without something more.
“You like that, huh? Like how that feels?” Kyle arched, giving his hips more lean against her ass, so he could bottom out inside of Kate, and…”ohhh mami, you feel so fucking sweet, dios….” And Kate made a loud, animal-like gasp that prompted Kyle to echo her. He had to concentrate to not just lose it and orgasm right now. Not yet not yet. He folded over her, letting his head rest momentarily against her back.
“Dios you are making me loco, Kate. Just makes me want to fuck you until you aren’t able to walk…” Kyle grinned against her back as he pushed his cock into her again. “But I don’t know if Ollie would like it if I returned you like that.” Kyle knew he was stepping in the hella red saying that, but hey; he had a firm hold on Kate’s hips, and he was buried hilt-deep into her as she rocked helplessly against him; no time like the present to get away with smart-mouth.
Despite the fact that Kate was not in much of a position to retort (and god, she was close, he felt so good, so deep that it made her growl each time he moved), she did have enough presence of mind to lift one arm, reach back, and scratch Kyle hard on the thigh.
“Miro tu boca o te escariar el culo,” she hissed, tone both amused and warning, punctuated by gasps, “and I’ll love every fucking second of watching you writhe under me, that pretty little ass.”
And thinking of that…mierda. She used her free hand to reach between her legs, stroke her clit, and she could feel him moving into her as she did—yeah, she would definitely need to get him back for that crack—for a moment, then two, before she came. It was rough and violent, and she tossed her hair back before it fell in her face again, tempted to bite the sheets. “Fuck, Kyle,” she hissed, riding it out and bucking under him.
“Ah Di — oh Dios,” Kyle stuttered helplessly from Kate’s threats. Or were they promises? Kyle’s thought processes shorted out as Kate’s words sketched out into his mind. He came right then, grinding hard into her instinctively as he felt her fingers flicking along her clit. His hands gripped her hips so tightly he pulled her knees off the bed, and her feet curled against his thighs for purchase. Kyle winced a bit, her shin grazing where she scratched him. He didn’t even realize how bad she’d gotten him until right then, and oooh it felt kind of nice. Like fire.
“Si mami, ride it out,” Kyle cooed, accommodating Kate shoved and slammed herself against him. Christ she looked so deliciously undone like this, and if his energy wasn’t almost totally tapped, it would’ve been enough to make him hard again, inside her. One final shove from Kate made his knees buckle. He fell back, but on instinct he grasped her tightly and swung her up, so she straddled his lap. He reached up and roughly turned her head to face his, catching her mouth with his own as she shuddered through the last jolts of her orgasm.
Everything released and slowly relaxing, they fell bonelessly sideways, Kyle laughing all the way down. “Hoooleeeeey….”
Fuck, Kate could feel him come, and it made her buck up hard into her own orgasm, clenching around him and thrusting back. Despite it lasting for several long, delicious seconds, she came down from it as quickly as it had come on in the first place.
Loose and exhausted, she let Kyle pull her up against him, hissing and gritting her teeth as he tugged on her hair, before kissing him firmly, if distractedly solely because she couldn’t focus on anything at all, couldn’t even muster energy to push her hair out of her face and his.
“Fucking hell,” she breathed, and couldn’t help herself, starting to laugh as well as she pulled her leg out from underneath him, shivering at the last few jolts of orgasm as she moved. Otherwise her heel would dig into his kidney, which wouldn’t be sexy at all. “That was fucking hot, ese.”