Swan

[slut_in_white]

Swan (closed)

Closed for Maka

Aly Hale was standing in the elevator of a building in which she felt more than a little out-of-place. It was a monolith of steel and glass, where everyone wore suits and made at least 6 figures. Where few employees were younger than 50. Where people drank scotch in the middle of the day.

It wasn't that she'd gone out of her way to stick out. She was wearing a nice blouse and skirt set with a pair of nice, professional pumps. Her make-up was pretty and subdued, exactly the sort of thing the other women in the office were wearing. Her glasses were pretty, but not over-the-top. She'd even taken her bright orange tongue-stud out and replaced it with a clear one... But her blonde hair was still streaked with shades of violent purple, making everyone in the office do a double-take when they saw her. Her boss had already told her he was fine with her colouring her hair whatever hue she wanted, but that didn't prevent the looks of shock she got from everyone else. Apparently no one else had been given a heads-up that she might look a little... out of place.

She took a deep, calming breath, thankful that she was alone in the elevator. First day of work nerves were pretty common, especially when no one would stop staring at her. She fiddled with the top button of her blouse, wondering if she should do it up. She'd checked herself several times in the mirror before leaving home, and had convinced herself that she looked perfectly appropriate. She knew she wasn't revealing too much skin, but she'd been what you might call a "late bloomer" - even now, she still felt a little awkward in her own body. It wasn't always bad. It meant that she could still get a little thrill whenever she looked in the mirror and realized that she had hips instead of just being a series of straight lines the way she had been for most of her teenage years. Of course, it also meant that she still always felt a little bit like she was about to explode out of her shirt. She'd get used to it. She hoped.

The elevator dinged as it reached her floor. It was 10am - everyone else had already started the day, but she'd been asked to come in a little later this morning to give her new boss, Mr Eddie Miller, a chance to prepare for her arrival. Indeed, it seemed he had: he was already waiting for her at the lobby when the doors opened.

"Aly! Welcome! Come on in!" He was a kind-looking man, the sort of guy you'd hire to play Santa Claus in a mall around Christmas time. Old enough to be a mall Santa too. He was the CTO of Elgan Inc, and Aly was about to start her first day on the job here as their new database administrator. She'd studied computer science in school, and had a few jobs at least semi-related to her field since then, but this was her first big "career" job.

She smiled at him, knowing her relief was written all over her face. His cheerful welcome went a long way to making her feel more comfortable already. "Hi, Mr Miller!"

He grinned and took her arm. "Oh please, call me Eddie!" He motioned to the middle-aged woman sitting behind the lobby desk. "Aly, this is Martha. Martha, Aly. She's our new DB admin!"

Martha smiled kindly. "Welcome to Elgan, Aly!"

Before Aly could even respond, Eddie was already sweeping her along through the office. There were people milling about, working at desks. A few of them looked up, and most looked a bit taken aback, but at least no one seemed surprised that a new hire was being shown around. "Come on, I'll show you to your office. You can drop off your stuff, and then I can get to introducing you to everyone else!"

As it turned out, Aly didn't really have her own office. All three people working in IT shared a large, private room next to the server room, but because the others worked in more of a support capacity, they were gone more often than not, leaving Aly alone in the room. Eddie left her alone for a little while to get herself situated at her desk, but popped by again around lunch to introduce her to a few more people around the office. Apparently she wasn't going to get any work done at all today.

 

[bb2411]

.....

 

[Maka]

"I saw her!"

Josh sighed. It was tempting to ignore Walt, the office gossip and lecher, but past experience had showed him that Walt could and would simply repeat his information at increasing volume until somebody finally gave in and asked for more details.

"You saw who?"

Joshua Arlen was a tall, lean and darkhaired young man, with tightly muscled abs that could have been sculpted from unyielding stone. Most women in the office, even those with happy, fulfiling marriages and attentive husbands, had fantasised about being held in those strong arms and fucked into joyous oblivion, that hard body rocking them with orgasm after orgasm. Despite Josh's relaxed, cheerful air, there was a smoulder in those deep blue eyes that suggested that he would be well capable of it.

It had been that way since high school. Josh Arlen fascinated women, and repaid their fascination amply. The only real mystery, and it remained a mystery even to Josh himself, was why no woman seemed to have had the tenacity to arrangement for something rather more permanent with him. Girlfriend after girlfriend, they came and went... almost as though he were searching for something.

"The new girl!" said Walt. "And let me tell you... she is fucking hot. Tits like fucking melons, an ass you could bounce a quarter off of... and she's got that punk rock look so you just know she's a dirty girl, she's a real dirty girl underneath... "

He trailed off, under assault from the glacial blue stare he was receiving from Josh.

"Walt?"

"Y... yeah?"

"There are such things as sexual harrassment laws. More importantly, do you want our new arrival to feel welcome and at ease, or like she's nothing more than a living pin-up for drooling geeks to stare at?"

Walt muttered something apologetic, and left shamefaced. Josh sighed, returning to his work. A few minutes later, he was interrupted again.

"Josh? There's someone I'd like you to meet."

It was Eddie, and behind him...

"No. Aly!?"

 

[slut_in_white]

No fucking way...

Aly supposed she could consider herself lucky that her 'exclamation' stayed inside her head. Cussing in front of her boss seemed like a bad call. Still, it would have felt appropriate as she looked up at the man standing in front of her, her hand pressed over her mouth to hide her shock. Her eyes had gone wide and her voice had stopped working, so she just kind of gaped at him for several seconds of silence after he'd said her name.

Josh Arlen had been Aly's best friend all through elementary school and high school. They'd been inseparable during their school years, and she hadn't met his like since. He was sweet, funny, and considerate. They got along famously, shared the same interests and the same outlook on life. Oh yes, Aly had fallen hard for him in high school, not that she'd ever admit it to him. She was never going to risk their friendship, and besides, she'd looked like a boy back then anyway, while he's always been hot enough to get with whatever girl he's ever wanted. Why would he want someone like her, right?

Aly hadn't just recently bloomed in terms of her body shape. Everything about her had changed in the past few years. She used to wear baggy, masculine clothes, and wear her naturally blonde hair in a short, easy-to-maintain cut that had not even a thought for how it looked on her. Most people who saw her thought she was a boy, until they heard her voice. Then they assumed she was a super-butch lesbian. It was only recently that she'd grown out her hair down to her shoulder blades, developed a taste for make-up (though never very much - she still didn't like the feeling of a whole lot of it caked onto her skin), and figured out some semblance of a sense of style for herself.

The result was that she suddenly garnered an endless amount of attention from men... But she hadn't seen Josh in years, not since well before her physical changes had really started. They'd attended different universities, far enough away to be in different time zones. They'd tried to stay in contact, but with that sort of distance, they eventually grew apart. She hadn't seen or spoken to him in forever.

Of course, that didn't mean she wasn't absolutely ecstatic at seeing him again.

"Josh?!" Her voice came out at least an octave higher than usual, and she grinned sheepishly, blushing. She cleared her throat and tried again. "Josh Arlan?"

Eddie was looking back and forth between them with surprise written all over his features. "So, I take it you two know each other?"

Still blushing brightly, Aly nodded. "Yeah, we were best friends in high school. But we haven't seen each other in forever..."

Eddie grinned and clapped Aly and Josh on the shoulder. "Well! I love a good reunion! I was going to offer to take you out to lunch as a welcome to the company outing, but if you two want to go and catch up..."

Aly couldn't stop the wide grin that spread across her face, which actually made her blush harder. She might have been getting just a little over-excited at the prospect. "I, umm, yeah, I'd really like that..."

 

[Maka]

Josh was grinning ear to ear. His gaze travelled up and down Aly's form.

Aly had been teased a great deal in school for her androgynous looks, although never within earshot of Josh. His mother had always opined that some day Aly would develop breasts, and grow into a great beauty. That prophecy had been fulfilled a hundredfold. Aly looked stunning.

It wasn't just the fact that her breasts had developed into firm, supple and buoyant spheres, a portion of their cleavage discreetly displayed by the undone top button of her blouse, the lower buttons struggling to contain their mass. It wasn't just that she had let her hair grow to her shoulders, giving it a silky golden lustre it had never had before. It wasn't her new sense of style, the cool cuteness of the glasses and the blouse elegantly supplementing the vivid streaks of purple in the hair, the tantalizing hint of the wild child. It wasn't even the way that the long, hard angles of her face had softened into something more feminine, while retaining the striking high, firm cheekbones. It was the seductive, enticing confidence to the way she held herself. It was impossible to imagine her being mistaken for a boy ever again. She was all woman.

Eddie looked delighted at the revelation. He was a benign, paternal boss who tried to make everyone feel as much at home as possible at work.

"I, umm, yeah, I'd really like that..." Aly said. She was grinning, and flushing bright red.

Josh laughed. It was nice to know one thing about Aly hadn't changed. She always blushed exceptionally easily -he'd sometimes teased her by provoking it.

"Then let's go," he said, standing and hugging Aly. "We've got a lot to catch up on."

 

[slut_in_white]

Aly squeaked when Josh hugged her. She had, naturally, figured she was over her high school crush in the years since she'd seen him last. But, oh boy, was it ever coming back with a vengeance. She returned the embrace quickly, the subtle smell of his cologne and the feeling of the strong muscles hidden by his shirt conspiring to make her a little dizzy.

It has taken her a very long time to stop pining after him after they'd gone their separate ways. Apparently it took less than 15 seconds to bring it all back. It occurred to her that working in the same company as Josh was going to make her love life hell. It never even occurred to her that he could be her love life. She'd spent so many years convincing herself that it was a) impossible and b) a very bad idea that she simply accepted that it was still true. She never really considered that the situation might be different now.

Still, she smiled broadly when they parted and banished those negative thoughts. She wasn't going to let anything interfere with how happy she was that he ended up back in her life by chance like this. She'd made friends in university and since, but she'd never been anywhere near as close to them as she had been with Josh.

The pair walked out of the office arm-in-arm, earning several looks (generally of the jealous persuasion) from both men and women around the office.

They ended up at a little pub down the street, and once the waitress had taken them to their table and took their drink orders, Aly leaned across the table, temporarily forgetting that her chest was no longer of a size that she could do so without giving him an accidental eye-full of her cleavage, and grinned. "So how long have you been working at Elgan? You know your Facebook profile still says that you work at that bookstore, right?" It was amazing how easily she fell back into her old, comfortable manner of interacting with him. They'd been apart for years, but she felt like she could still talk to him as if they'd only seen each other yesterday.

 

[Maka]

Aly leaned eagerly over the table, inadvertantly granting Josh an eye-popping view of wonderfully firm, creamy young cleavage. You had to wonder if the blouse was made to hold up under the pressure being brought to bear on it. It was hard to remember the way that Aly had once been teased for being flat as a surfboard. She had breasts now that a supermodel might envy.

"The bookstore... " Josh shook his head ruefully. "Right. I haven't been updated my Facebook page in over a year... "

The truth was that in some ways he'd been much happier there, if also much less well-paid than at Elgan. But he'd felt the treacherous sense that he should be getting a 'grown-up' job.

"Actually, I've been at Elgan about that long. It's... "

He met her gaze, suddenly quietly intense after the laughter and infectious joy of their reunion. He felt so suddenly... at peace, seeing his best friend again after all this time, having the prospect of spending every working day with her nearby again. He felt like an addict, suddenly restored to a blissful, miraculous hit of his drug of choice.

"I don't know why we fell out of touch, Aly. Let's never do that again."

 

[slut_in_white]

A broad, genuine smile spread over Aly's face in response, while a bright blush rose on her cheeks. She had never really understood how she'd managed to deserve that kind of affection and loyalty from Josh. Certainly they'd been friends for a long time, and she could never fully describe how much he meant to her, but that made sense. She'd been enough of a pariah in high school that being friends with her couldn't have been very easy, and yet he'd stuck with her through all of it, even defending her when and where he could. Josh himself had been quite popular, and Aly was sure it would have been easier on his social life to just let her go, but he would never have even considered such a thing.

It was hard, sometimes, for her to see the value in herself. She wasn't a particularly negative person - quite the opposite, in fact - but one can't really go through the kind of bullying that she had in high school without it having an impact on her self-image. She'd gotten better over the years, of course, but it stuck with her occasionally.

I don't know why we fell out of touch, Aly. Let's never do that again.

Only, then, Josh said something like that, something that made her feel like the only person in the world, and all of that self-doubt just fell away. Was it any wonder she'd fallen for him so hard those years ago? Or that her crush was all coming back so quickly now?

"Believe me, I don't intend to." Her gaze flickered down to the table and her grin turned a little sheepish. She wanted to respond in kind, say something that was as meaningful to him as his words had been to her (even if he hadn't intended them to be). Only, she wasn't very good at expressing herself this way. She was the sort of girl who joked and laughed and kept her topics of conversation light, only ever getting as far as implying how she felt, rather than coming right out and saying it. Josh was the only person she'd ever really spoken bluntly to about her emotions, but that had been years ago, and even then, she didn't do it often.

So, with her blush still burning on her cheeks and unable to look him in the eye, she smiled at him and added, "I really missed you Josh. A lot."

 

[jlol4321]

Empty

 

[Maka]

Aly's cheeks were scorching up with a vivid blush, although it had the effect of making her more attractive -making an astonishingly appealing, cutely bashful addition to her beauty. The sight led the male mind -and the male libido, in certain inevitable directions. Something about the way Aly blushed and trained her gaze on the table caused a quite unexpected thought to pop into Josh's head: what was Aly like in bed?

He'd never wondered that before. It would have been such a strange question to ask himself about his best friend. But suddenly the question had presented itself, and was answering itself with equal insistence. The way she moved and held herself, that casual yet graceful poise -that all suggested athletic flexibility and stamina. Her lithe, slender young body could have been engineered for marathon fuck-sessions. And the way she blushed so easily... something about it suggested a certain mouthwatering, hair-trigger sensitivity, a vulnerability to pleasure combined with an appetite for it that would make every sexual encounter with her an endlessly surprising and endlessly satisfying wild ride.

Josh tried to banish the thoughts from his mind. This was Aly! His oldest and best friend. He must not think this way about her. He cleared his throat.

"So! Um... are you seeing anyone these days, Aly?"

It was meant to be a light-hearted, catching-up kind of a question but Josh suddenly wasn't sure that was what it was at all. His stomach was already reflexively sinking in response to the anticipated answer -how could someone as gorgeous, cute, funny and smart as his old friend not already be snapped up? And Josh was more upset about than he was willing to admit to himself.

 

[slut_in_white]

Apparently Aly was simply never going to stop blushing again. At least, not in Josh's presence. Part of her wondered if he was doing it on purpose. He used to tease her endlessly about how easily she blushed. Maybe this was simply more of the same. Perhaps it was strange, but she liked the thought; she liked the idea that they could so easily fall back into their old friendship like that.

"No," she answered after a moment, rubbing the back of her neck. "I'm not seeing anybody. I mean, I was but... You know I was in Seattle before this, right? I only just moved here. There was a guy there, I guess you could call him a boyfriend. But if I hadn't broken it off because I was moving, I would have anyway because he just wasn't..." She trailed off, seeking the appropriate words. She was looking up at the ceiling, leaning back against the booth bench, trying to figure out how to express herself accurately. "I mean, he wasn't a bad guy, but it just wasn't fun. There wasn't any chemistry. He was fine in bed. You might say he was a, um, practiced lover, but he lacked passion..."

She met Josh's gaze at that moment, and her blush returned in full force, her eyes going wide as she realized exactly what she was saying. "... And that's way too much information! I'm sorry. I guess my mouth kind of ran away from me." She grinned sheepishly, picking up her drink as much to hide behind it as to actually drink from it.

"So, what about you? Have you finally found a girl to settle down with, or are you still adhering to the six week rule?" Her tone had become slightly teasing as she spoke, and she winked at him once she mentioned the six week rule. It was a joke they'd come up with in high school, when Josh habitually went through girlfriends as if they were a flavour of the month. It was considered impressive if any of his girlfriends ever lasted more than six weeks. She doubted that was still the case. Women would kill for a chance at a long-term relationship with a man like him: easy-going, winning smile, witty, gentle, and a sculpted body that could have been carved from marble. There was no way some lucky girl hadn't snapped him up.
That, or every woman in the city was certifiably insane for letting someone like Josh walk around single.

 

[Maka]

"I mean, he wasn't a bad guy, but it just wasn't fun. There wasn't any chemistry. He was fine in bed. You might say he was a, um, practiced lover, but he lacked passion..." Aly was saying hesitantly.

Josh's eyes widened. Several different emotions surfaced at once. One was a wholly unexpected wave of jealous fury, the idea that somebody else got to touch his Aly, got to see that gorgeous body naked. Combining it with a sense of frustration -this idiot, whoever he was, had lacked passion? Given the extraordinary possibilities of Aly's body, given the inspiration of her delicate beauty, given the hints of a wild ardour just begging to be unleashed, he had settled for being "fine" in bed? What the hell was his problem?

Aly caught and misread Josh's disbelieving expression and blushed more vividly than ever. She looked like she wanted to hide beneath the table. Josh opened his mouth to explain as Aly frantically apologised, then shut it again. What exactly was he going to say? "Actually, I'm angry with the guy in Seattle because he didn't give you the kind of epic, passionate fucking you deserve."?

Instead, Josh considered Aly's question. As a matter of fact, he hadn't really progressed much beyond the six weeks' rule in all this time. His last relationship had been with a girl who'd also worked at the bookshop. He remembered their break-up, after about a month of going out.

"Don't get me wrong. The sex is great... the sex is better than great. And you're kind and funny and... yes, oh-my-God hot but... I never know what you're thinking, Josh. I can't get inside your head. Not at all. And when you're with me, it always feels like you're just... marking time. Like I'm not really the one for you at all and deep down you know it... "

Josh hadn't protested. She hadn't been wrong.

"Oh, you know... " he told Aly with a disarming smile. "Nobody right now."

It might have been a mischievous desire to see Aly blush again that caused him to add:

"And it's kind of hard to find a girl that can... well, keep up. In bed."

This was true, although Josh would never have dreamed of discussing it with anyone other than his best friend. Josh's mammoth cock and endless reserves of stamina often led to an exhausted, thoroughly sated partner simply blacking out from pleasure before he'd even begun to tire.

 

[slut_in_white]

Yep. Josh was definitely trying to keep her blushing forever. And oh, was it working.

And it's kind of hard to find a girl that can... well, keep up. In bed.

Her eyes went wide and her mind went wild, thinking of all the things that could mean. She couldn't help it, her mind veered off without her permission and she found herself imagining Josh engaged in a deliciously long, marathon fuck with some mysterious woman, throwing her into orgasm after orgasm until she was too exhausted to continue, but Josh still not letting up...

Aly's face went a vivid red while her whole body heated with arousal while she fought off a wave of intense jealousy. She wanted to be that woman. Only, she knew Josh would never think of her that way. They'd been friends too long. Besides, she realized, once that initial jealousy had died down, that she wasn't sure she really wanted that either. Sure, she'd been crushing on Josh forever, but she didn't want to get into a romantic relationship with him just to fall victim to his six-week rule herself. Whatever the reason behind why his relationships never lasted, she didn't want to lose her best friend to it.

No, even if it meant she'd have to pretend like she didn't want him that way, it was worth it. She couldn't stand the idea of losing him after only a few weeks and ruining everything they had together. Even if it meant his teasing about his stamina in bed was going to keep her hot and bothered pretty much for the rest of the day.

----------------

Unsurprisingly, Aly and Josh had a lot to talk about. They nearly lost track of time and only barely made it back to the office before their lunch was supposed to be over, and they'd barely even scratched the surface of everything they needed to catch up on.

Once they made it back to the office, they were clearly hesitant to end their conversation and get back to work, but it needed to be done. After all, the fact that Josh worked here too was all the more reason for Aly to make sure she impressed her boss so she could make sure to stay on the team. The only problem was, once she got back to her office, Aly couldn't stop thinking about him. It was probably good that it was her first day, so she lacked any real work to do, because she wouldn't have gotten anything done, distracted as she was by her excitement. All she wanted was to wander over to his office again to see him. She had no excuse for doing so, and she was certain he'd eventually get annoyed with her for bothering him. Or maybe he was as distracted as she was...

She ended up making a compromise with herself. No bothering him in a way he couldn't ignore if he was busy, but she could at least talk to him if he had the time. Elgan used an IM program to facilitate communication around the office. It was supposed to be used only for work-related stuff, but one of the great perks of working in IT meant that Aly was one of the people in charge of checking those logs. She opened the IM app and grinned.

Best part about working in IT: I get to bother you over IM without getting into trouble

 

[Maka]

The usually unflappable Josh found himself too keyed up to really concentrate on his work. He told himself that it was all excitement over seeing his best friend again, so unexpectedly after so long. And that was true, but only part of it. The fact was that he'd been stirred up and aroused by the newly blossomed beauty of her face and form. It was very hard to think of anything other than her toned ass in that skirt, of her generous breasts seemingly ready to burst out of her blouse, of the way her face had heated and her eyes had gone so suggestively soft and dreamy when he teased her about sex...

He was woken from his reverie by the chime of an IM from his computer. He grinned as he read Aly's message, then typed back:

I dunno, though. How'm I going to enjoy watching you blush if I can't see your face?

 

[slut_in_white]

Aly bit her lip, trying to hide her grin when Josh responded. Oh yes, she was never going to get any work done.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, her face lit up in another blush as soon as she read the response and she typed back:

I think, given how our conversation over lunch went, that you could probably just assume I'm always blushing and it would be pretty accurate.

"What's this? You looking at something you're not supposed to be back there?"

Aly looked up, surprised by the presence of another person in her office. Then, once she registered what he'd said, surprised by the presence of someone so willing to openly imply that she was watching porn on her first day. "I, um, I'm sorry, who are you?"

The man, a slightly older, plump man with one of those always-red faces, reached over the top of her computer screen to shake her hand. "I'm Walt."

Aly smiled. Awkward as that intro had been, there was no reason to burn bridges. "Nice to meet you, Walt. What can I do for you today?"

Walk chortled. "Oh, lots of things, few of which would be appropriate to the workplace." Before Aly could respond, though, he handed her a laptop. "Actually, though, I'm having some problems with accessing my email."

Aly, blushing angrily about the weird come-ons he was making, took the laptop. Part of her wanted to say something, but she didn't know who this guy was, and telling off the CEO on the first day seemed like a bad idea. Sure, he could just as easily been the janitor as the CEO, but she had no idea which was the case. She opened the laptop and started checking through it. "I don't see a problem here, Walt."

Walt's response took longer than it should have, and when Aly looked up at him, she realized that he'd been staring at her chest. "Walt," she snapped, this time getting his attention.

"Oh, uh, no, I'm certain there's a problem. I get some of my emails, but not all of them. You should keep checking." And he went right back to staring very openly at her chest.

Aly typed a few more things into the laptop, trying to see if there really was a problem. She was beginning to suspect that he'd come in here with some phony excuse just to check her out, but she couldn't send him away without doing due diligence in case there really was a problem. And he knew that. When she looked up at him again, she realized that he'd developed a visible hard-on, and he was actually leaning forward over the desk in an apparent attempt to get a look down her shirt. She nearly growled and pushed her chair away from him, back towards her own computer, where she pretended to look something up. Instead, she sent a message to Josh.

There's a weird guy in here telling me that he has a problem with his computer but he keeps trying to look down my shirt... Is Walt anyone important, or can I safely yell at him without getting into trouble for it?

 

[Maka]

It took Josh a moment to register the significance of the message, then fury welled up in him.

That dirty... !

Most of the younger women in the office had had their turn being leered at and harassed by Walt. He was just clever enough to hide his tracks, never trying anything with someone confident and experienced enough to go straight to Eddie. Even so, word got around and Eddie had talked to him about it, but Walt had been able to play on their boss' inherent, unsuspecting decency, representing himself as just a harmless, over-friendly guy unintentionally sending out the wrong signals.

But a new recruit, especially with Aly's particularly delicate brand of beauty and habit of blushing profusely... Walt would be licking his chops. Josh hadn't realised earlier that Aly was the new girl he was drooling over, and perhaps that was just well. If he'd realised that the object of Walt's voyeuristic lust was his best friend, he wasn't sure if he'd have been able to stop himself punching the older man.

He was out of his chair in an instant and striding across the office to the IT department, his eyes blazing. He came into Aly's office. As he'd suspected from her message, Walt was making little effort at all to disguise the fact that he was looking down Aly's shirt, using an increasingly thin set of excuses to keep her bent over his laptop and exhibiting her breasts to best advantage. Walt was breathing heavily.

"That's it," he was saying as Josh entered. "Just take another look... "

Josh laid a hand on his shoulder. Walt looked up, panic flaring up in his eyes.

"I think you and I need to have a word, Walt," he said quietly.

 

[slut_in_white]

Aly was getting angry enough that she was starting to think maybe she's just tell him off before Josh responded. And she was just expecting a response over IM from him. Needless to say, she was nearly as surprised as Walt was when he burst into the room. He'd put on a mask of cold calm when Walt turned around to look at him, but Aly had seen the fury on his face when he first entered the office.

If she was being completely honest, she felt more than a little pleasure at the fierceness with which he seemed to want to protect her. He'd always been pretty protective of her, but it had always been against bullying. This time, protecting her against the advances of another man... given, a very creepy older man, but still. She couldn't help but feel like there may have been an element of jealousy. She knew that was crazy. Josh thought of her has a sister, not as a potential romantic partner. And, she reminded herself, she didn't want him to think of her like that. She didn't want to fall prey to that six-week rule.

But then... She could maybe spend a little time pretending, right?

 

[Maka]

Walt had always been intimidated by Josh. He wordlessly rose, then realised that his half-formed erection was showing. Josh coolly stared him down, watching anger and humiliation chase each other across the older man's face. He motioned for Walt to walk out first, then followed him.

A short, crisp monologue followed in which Josh explained, in painstaking detail, exactly what would happen if Walt even looked at any of the women in the office, most especially and particularly Aly. Cowed and sullen now, Walt simply stared at his shoes. He muttered something.

"What was that?"

Walt was scared, but also angry.

"I said, can't you handle the competition, pretty boy?"

"What are you talking about?"

"You know damn well what I'm talking about. Like you haven't been sneaking looks at your old buddy's ass and tits, like you haven't already been thinking about fucking her."

"Shut up."

Josh's sudden fury silenced Walt this time, and a curt jerk of the younger man's head sent him on his way. But Josh simply stood there for a moment. Why had Walt been able to get to him like that? Was there anything in what he said?

It was true that he found it hard to stop himself from admiring Aly's body -it simply drew his eye magnetically. And it was also true that all kinds of obscene images involving her and him had flashed involuntarily through his mind. But it was... she was... it was different. Wasn't it?

He re-entered Aly's office.

"Just like that bullying brat Karl Wallace in fifth grade," he told her cheerfully, trying to disguise his inner confusion.

 

[slut_in_white]

Aly grinned when Josh came back into the room. Apparently the conversation had gone well, because he started joking with her as soon as he walked in. She remember Karl. He'd been one of her worst bullies. He loved to tease her about her weight when she was little. She'd never been obese, but she'd definitely been chubby before a growth spurt in high school had turned her into an equally-androgynous (for different reasons) stick figure. Ironic, because Karl himself had been quite... rotund.

"Yeah, just like," she agreed, standing up. "Well, except this time my issue was having too much of a chest instead of none." She came around the front of her desk and leaned back against it. Her expression turned a bit bashful. "Josh... Thank you for coming." She smiled. "My knight in shining armor."

 

[Maka]

Josh returned Aly's grin, the discomfort of confronting Walt's insinuations melting away like snow in summer sunshine. How could what he felt for Aly be anything like Walt's creepy, pathetic voyeurism. Her smile was radiant, transformative. A man who could wake up to a smile like that every day...

Josh shook himself. Why was he still thinking like this? Aly was standing against her desk now, her smile a little bashful as she thanked him. Josh shook his head, walking over to join her.

"Hey, I know you can take care of yourself," he told her seriously. "It's just that Walt pisses me off. Even outside just now, he said something... he said... "

God, Aly's subtle, fragrant scent was incredible. Coupled with the sparkle in her eyes, the sense of the nearness of her warm, slender body... Josh wasn't sure quite what he was saying.

 

[slut_in_white]

Woah. Josh was standing really close. She could smell him, the soft, tempting scent of his cologne and that intense, masculine smell that was all him... He'd smelled that way since high school and she loved it.

She looked up at him, her eyes widening slightly in the awareness that they were definitely closer together than two friends... He was saying something. She couldn't really tell what it was, her mind was so far gone with his closeness.

He fell silent and they ended up just looking at each other. Her mind finally caught up with what Josh had said and she blushed, realizing that she hadn't heard the end of the sentence. Or maybe he just hadnt finished.

"He said..." she repeated. Then she laughed at herself. "Sorry, I guess I must have zoned out there for a second... What did he say?"

 

[Maka]

Uncharacteristically, Josh hesitated.

"Oh, he had this idea... "

He was standing way too close to Aly. He tried to take a step backward but somehow his feet didn't want to comply.

"That I... that you and I... "

Aly's breasts were ripe, succulent wonders snug in her blouse, standing out all the more on her slender frame. But there was something about her sensitive, full pink lips that seemed to draw his gaze even more.

"Or that I wanted us to be... an item."

A lock of blonde hair, touched with purple, had fallen into Aly's face. Without even thinking about what he was doing, Josh reached out to brush it back -a gesture dating back to Aly's scruffy days in high school. The instant he touched the side of her face, he froze, his hand still in place, feeling as though an electric current had rushed through him.

 

[slut_in_white]

Aly was frozen. All that convincing herself that she actually didn't want to be romantically involved with him had been theoretical. Something she'd been convincing herself was true because never in a million years would Josh actually feel something like that for her. But in the face of this, what Walt had said, how close they were, his hand on her face... Aly could never say no to him. The thought was laughable.

But then, this sort of casual touch wasn't so out of character, right? He used to touch her like that all the time. This felt different, but that could just be her imagination, couldn't it?

She realized suddenly that she was leaning a little into his hand, and she jerked back, blushing furiously. "Well," she said, laughing. It was a forced sound, but she kept it up anyway. She couldn't stand the idea of the only alternative she could see: either rejection, or losing him after a month-long whirlwind romance. "That's clearly ridiculous. He's probably just trying to justify his own creepiness. I wouldn't worry about it."

 

[Maka]

"Yes... " said Josh.

He still hadn't moved away. He was held helpess, enraptured by Ally's shy gaze. She was blushing furiously and had jerked her head back, but for just a moment, she had leant her smooth, flawless cheek against the fingers of his hand, and his hand still tingled with the contact.

It was as though all the easiness of their old physical intimacy was still there, but now overlaid with a raw and violent desire. It was a strange mixture, and it was arousing Josh. He bent his head. His lips were so close to Aly's.

 

[slut_in_white]

... Was Josh going to kiss her? Oh, God, he was going to kiss her! Her heart did a somersault in her chest. Needless to say, this wasn't going the way she had expected. She pushed herself up onto her tiptoes, seeking to close the distance between them, butterflies roaring in her stomach...

The door handle rattled and Aly literally jumped back from Josh, her face turning a violent shade of red. She stared at Josh for a moment, then at the door as one of her coworkers, apparently clueless to what he had interrupted, walked into the room and smiled.

"Hey Josh! Having computer troubles?"