Alkalians (23 page)

“
It means she
incapacitates her opponent by wrestling her to the ground and
binding her up so she can’t move, threatening to break a limb she
has a hold of or strangulate her. She got me a few times with my
head between her legs, cutting off the circulation in my neck,
while pulling back on my leg to the point she almost snapped it. A
very uncomfortable position to be in, let me assure
you!”

“
Hah, yeah, sounds like
it. But why would you be practicing to fight outside of your battle
morph?”

“
Well, think about it,
Matt. Let’s say you had to fight someone or defend yourself in an
environment where you couldn’t morph, like here, in the college.
You would want to have some way of defending yourself, and that’s
where techniques mostly found in martial arts become very
useful.”

“
Ah, I see.” Matt again
stares at Rose’s neck, then chest, wondering what her skin felt and
tasted like. Snapping himself out of it, they pass through the
doors out of the college as he says, out of the blue, “Hey, you
wanna race, Rose?”

“
Huh?”

“
You know, go into battle
morph, and rush off across campus to our cabin. First one there
wins! What do you say?”

“
Hmm. What do we get if
one of us wins?”

“
Uh, let’s see. Oh, the
loser has to do one thing for the winner, no matter what it is, at
any time of his-or-her choosing. Sound good to you?”

Considering the fairness of such a
contract, Rose smirks as she holds out her hand. “Sounds fine to
me.”

Smirking back, Matt reaches over and
shakes her hand, saying, “Then it’s a deal.” The two look at each
other for a moment more before flashing into their battle morphs
and taking off across the fields, running at high speed or cruising
along on air balance.

***

Stepping out of the cabin behind him,
closing the door with a thud, Sean takes a deep breath of the
autumn air around him, releasing it in a content sigh. In his usual
brown apparel, he grins to himself. “Okie dokie, then. Time for
another night at the casino!” Not caring that he still has a bunch
of homework to do from his classes, he has convinced himself he
could do it later, with Rose’s help, as he begins strolling down
the path through the plot of cabins around him, whistling a happy
tune to himself.

A note in his whistling is dragged low
and to a stop as he spots two things in the distance, becoming
larger and recognized as two, humanoid figures as they come closer.
Still not sure what they are until they are a couple hundred yards
away, identifying them as the battle morphs for Matt and Rose, he
only has moments before they would be upon him in their high-speed
race, backing away and trying to wave his hands as proper reactions
eluded him. “Whoa, whoa, wait a second…Spirits, why!?”

Rose, completely focused on keeping
pace with Matt’s air balance as she runs beside him, doesn’t notice
some guy in her way until seconds before colliding with him when he
screams. To avoid collision, all she can do is leap off to the left
side, sliding across the ground to a stop beside one of the cabins.
She turns and watches with shock and frustration as Matt sails past
the guy, who she now sees is Sean, slows to a stop in a
decelerating run, and taps the front door of their cabin, shouting,
“Yes, I win!”

Growling and glaring at Sean, Rose
stomps toward him, declaring, “Sean, you idiot, why didn’t you
move? You cost me the race!”

“
Gah, uh, wait, what? What
in the name of the Earth Spirit were you guys doing!?” Bewildered,
Sean backs away from Rose.

“
We were racing back to
the cabin in our battle morphs, and whoever lost owes the winner
one favor, without objection, whenever he or she wants. And you
made me lose!”

“
Er, well, uh, it’s not my
fault that you weren’t watching where you going! Who the hell
randomly races around in their battle morphs, anyway? They’re for
fighting, not racing!”

“
Ah, good point, Sean. How
about we get right to the ‘fighting’ part, then?” Rose leers at
him, forming leaf daggers in her hands.

As Sean stutters for some kind of
response that could get him out of trouble, instead of deeper into
it, Matt steps in between them, out of morph, and acts as the voice
of reason. “Whoa, hey now, let’s calm down, guys! Rose, you have to
admit, it’s not completely his fault you lost. You should have seen
him standing there and avoided him without any trouble. But Sean,
you should still apologize for being in the way, and maybe she’ll
reconsider stabbing you multiple times.”

“
Duh, oh, fine! Rose, I’m
sorry for being an idiot and not getting out of the way as you two
were coming down the lane. And, uh, please don’t hurt
me!”

Sighing as she diffuses her
frustration, Rose demorphs. “Yeah, and sorry for putting all the
blame on you. I should have been more aware of my
surroundings.”

“
You are most graciously
forgiven, Rose. After all, I’m not the guy to hold grudges, and I
certainly hope you’re not the girl that does! But anyway, I’m just
gonna head off now, before I do something else stupid. Later!” To
Matt and Rose’s surprise, he enters his battle morph and speeds off
on air balance into the distance, getting away from them as fast as
he can.

Blinking and coughing a bit in the
dust from his burst of air balance on departure, Rose says, “Heh,
for a guy who knows how to use his battle morph now, he’s still
somewhat timid, isn’t he?”

“
Yeah. I guess some habits
die hard.” Matt then suggests, “Well, shall we go
inside?”

“
Oh, yeah, sure.” The two
walk up to their cabin, unlock the door, and head
inside.

***

Sitting on the couch in the living
room of the cabin a few minutes later, drinking casually from a
bottle of vodka, Matt reflects on the past day, especially his time
with Amelia, when Rose walks down the stairs from her bedroom in a
pink bath robe and heads for the bathroom behind him, saying,
“Well, I’m going to take a shower, before dinner gets
here.”

“
Okay.” Matt squints his
eyes as a thought comes to him. A thought that, if he dwells any
more on, it would make him upset, and he knows may make Rose upset
if she found out later. Before she gets into the bathroom, he
speaks up, “Uh, hey, Rose, wait up. There’s something I should tell
you.”

“
Oh?” She stops at the
bathroom door, turning around. “And what’s that? Will it be
quick?”

“
Um, yeah, I hope so.”
Standing from the couch, he walks around it to face her. “So, you
remember how I was telling you what I did with Amelia in the study
hall, today? Well, my alchemy homework wasn’t the only thing we
did. We also did another kind of, uh, studying.” He looks away from
her, afraid of how she was going to react when she gets the
message.

It takes a moment for Rose to get it,
but when she does, she gasps, her hands moving to conceal her chest
and pelvis even though she is covered, and exclaims, “Oh, Matt, you
can’t be serious! You slept with her?”

“
Whoa, no, no, it never
went that far! She just showed me, uh, the upper body.” He gestures
to the chest area.

“
Ah, just that much, huh.”
She brings both her arms across her chest, embarrassed as she is
sure he could envision what her chest looks like bare, and says,
“You’re not going to do anymore of that with her, are
you?”

“
Well, the next time, we
decided she was going to show me the lower body.”

“
Oh, Matt!” She grimaces
while putting a palm to her face. “You can’t just go rushing into
such, such, activities, like that. It’s not healthy, you could
become obsessed over it, and you could hurt others, and yourself,
through it!”

“
Yes, Rose, yes, I am
aware of that.” Speaking calmly and as rationally as he could, he
continues, “That’s why her and I started these lessons. It’s so
that I am well aware of a woman’s, er, physical features, and
therefore won’t find myself intimidated or fantasizing over
them.”

“…
I don’t know, Matt, it
still doesn’t sound right, to me.”

“
Yeah, maybe. But it would
be better than keeping me in the dark about such things, only to
make terrible mistakes in trying to find out on my own, wouldn’t
you agree?”

“…
Well, yes, I guess.”
Easing back towards the bathroom, Rose says, “Perhaps we should
just drop the subject here, and hope for the best to come from your
lessons with Amelia, eh?”

“
Yeah, I suppose. Unless…”
A sudden idea comes to his mind as Rose turns for the door. “You
were willing to do that favor you owed me,
here-and-now.”

It takes another moment
before Rose understands, and she slowly turns back to face him, her
face pale and pleading. “Oh please, Matt, you wouldn’t have me
do
that
over some
silly deal, would you?”

“
Well, it’s nothing too
outrageous, if you think about it. I was just going to suggest you
show me all of you, right here, before you took your shower. I
won’t even touch you or come close to you, just, um, observe you.
That’s not so bad, right?”

“
I don’t know, Matt. I’d
still feel dirty doing it.”

Thinking quickly of some unfathomable
way to convince her to do this for him, a spark comes to Matt as he
suggests, “Then, how about I show you me, as well?”

Her eye brows rise as Rose looks back
to him at his suggestion. “Pardon?”

“
You know, you show me, I
show you. It would be fair, as we’d both see something of the other
we would never get to otherwise. Oh hey, to make it simpler, I
could just take a shower with you! How does that sound?”

Finding herself honestly considering
the idea, unwilling to admit she has her own wishes to see a man’s
features, Rose stutters in her reply. “You’ve, you’ve gotten really
bold about this, haven’t you? I, uh, I think, um, we…oh, fine,
we’ll do it! C’mon, then, let’s get this over with.” Not waiting
for him, she goes into the bathroom, leaving the door
open.

Blinking a few times to realize she is
going through with it, Matt says, “Ah, right, coming!” and follows
her into the bathroom, closing the door behind them. The bathroom
is small for the cabin. A simple sink is on Matt’s left with a
mirror above it, the toilet is off to his right, and the shower
with a curtain is behind Rose, who faces him. The two stand there
for a moment, each unsure of how to start, before she admits, “You
know, this is going to be pretty awkward, Matt.”

“
Yeah, I would be
surprised if it wasn’t. Oh, well, I guess I should take off the
most of my clothes.” He proceeds to take off his shoes, shirt,
socks, and pants, leaving him standing before Rose in nothing but a
pair of black boxers.

Softly gasping as she
stares at Matt’s bare legs, arms, and chest, amazed to find she was
attracted to his figure, the two make eye contact before she
blushes a little and says, “This
is
pretty awkward.”

“
Uh huh. Hey, I know!
Let’s each turn around, strip down at the same time, and then turn
back to the other. Okay?”

“
Um, sure, okay.” Taking a
deep breath before turning to face the shower curtain, as Matt
turns to face the door, she does a countdown. “One. Two. Three!” As
Matt pulls down his boxers, she undoes her bath robe and lets it
fall off her. It takes another moment before they dare to turn back
around, but when they do they are star struck, their eyes scanning
over the other from top to bottom as they see each other completely
nude. Tilting her head in interest as she looks at Matt’s lower
region, she comments, “Wow, so, that’s what, um,
those
, look
like.”

“
Yeah, and you, um, don’t
have them. You’re so, so…” Matt stares at her pelvis, trying to
find words to describe it. “So, bare, and smooth, down
there.”

“
Yeah, and you, ah, don’t
remove the hair, down there, as I did.” Another moment goes by as
they stare at the other, like they are each looking at an art
sculpture they are trying to understand, absorbing every detail of
the other’s skin, frame, curves, and design. Finally, she shakes
her head out of the trance before gesturing to the shower behind
her and saying, “Well, let’s take that shower, then.”

“
Oh, right, of course!”
Blinking to get himself to look away from her lower region, he
fails to not look back as she turns around to open the curtain and
turn on the water, gazing at her backside when she was bent over.
Once she steps in and looks back to him, he snaps out of it again
and nods before stepping in beside her, trying his best not to
brush up against her in the confined space of the
shower.

As the hot water rains on them both,
with Rose’s back to Matt as she runs her hands through her crisp,
red hair and over her torso, he takes in a full view of her
backside as he stands close to it before asking, “So, is this
awkward, anymore?”

“
Um, not as much as
before, actually. I’m trying not to dwell on it. The water’s
helping me relax.” She reaches for a bottle of shampoo, pours some
gel into her other hand, and then lathers up her hair, turning so
that the front of her is to Matt, her eyes almost closed as she
observes him.