Chapter One Hundred Two - The Mobile One-Woman Tent

Love Sparks As I
Still Your Pain,
And Glee As I
Kill Our Foe

Joy Sparks As You
Return My Love
And I Rest
My Heart

– A random love letter from Tinea to Leah, some time after they'd settled down together

***

There were only a few tasks left to complete, and the prickling heat that continued to send drops of liquid dew down the inside of my thighs only motivated me to work faster.

Between the simplicity of the tasks and the lack of any active…teasing, I found my awareness entirely free to focus on the sensations of the experience. Of being a woman.

As Aden, I'd stood anchored in a way that I wasn't anymore. I was lighter and the distribution of my weight had changed with my transformation, which I'd gotten used to in the dream training during my chrysalis.

My balance had shifted forwards a little, leaving me almost dancing on my toes where previously I'd been rooted on my heels, and my tail naturally led my hips into a constant soft sway that felt…conditioned to appeal, somehow. It wasn't really, but that's where it took my mind.

My thighs were smoother, a little less overtly toned even if far stronger, and deliciously, femininely squishy. The thought sent a blush up my cheeks and my heart soared with the giddiness of being Tinea.

A little further up, the sexual heat felt more internal than external. Instead of wanting to push my hips forward to present, it wanted me to tease coyly, to sway and seduce. It was beckoning, not pushing.

The beckoning's pretty loud though if I read Leah's hot glances correctly, I giggled.

And then, yet a little further up, my breasts were straining against the silken tube-top thing, swollen and all soft with bionite-nutrition solution. Which made me feel ridiculously curvy and I loved it, even if they weren't actually big.

And sitting perky on top of those breasts, were my nipples. Which had my fingers twitching and itching to explore and poke.

But I didn't because I was a good girl, yes I was. Even if one of my antennae wasn't listening to me and kept tickling my swells, until Leah chuckled.

So, to take revenge, I turned away from her and bent over deep to grab the case of the ancient PC from underneath, while keeping my legs straight.

Success! I crowed in my mind when there was a small crash as Leah dropped something and I sensed a deep, shuddering breath being taken somewhere behind me.

I looked and made big, guileless eyes at her, still bent over and giving Leah a perfect eyeful as I supported my torso on the rectangular case. Leah was flushed, from her throat to her cheeks and even the tip of her ears.

I gently tilted my head and asked, laughing on the inside, "Are you okay, Leah? What happened?"

She quickly caught herself, picked up the explosives-teleporting horseshoes she'd dropped, and cleared her throat as she straightened up again. She was so focused on not letting her gaze dip that she almost missed the twitching of my lips as I tried to keep the amusement inside.

Her eyes narrowed dangerously as I rose to lift the case and turned, tucking it underneath my jigglies and accidentally pushing them north to confront, uh, I mean, serve Leah full-on cleavage and jiggle physics on a platter.

Mmm-hmm. I was still being a good girl, all innocent and unaware, of course. The chaotic giggles in the back of my throat weren't actually happening, really. Not at all, nope. Yup!

Leah was squinting at me and probably thinking up all kinds of suitable…punishments as I slowly wandered over to her, and I really wanted to preen under her eyes, but instead I looked up at her with a cute little pout and made helpless puppy-dog eyes.

"Leaah~" I lisped in a high voice, lifting the case slowly as I held it up to her and letting my breasts slide off of it with a satisfying jiggle, " 'm short. Help?"

She leaned over and rested her hands against the underside of the PC, but didn't take any of its weight. She loomed over me, her lips brushing very lightly across my own and sending little shocks through me that made me want to whine quietly, and I almost did when she opened them to speak and a hot breath vibrated across me with her voice.

"Help what, Tinea? What's the magic word?"

"Oh. Um," I stuttered breathlessly. "Help, please?"

"Mmm."

My knees went weak when she smiled against my lips.

"Good girl."

Then my eyes fluttered closed and I moaned properly when she softly, so softly, pressed an open kiss against my mouth, her tongue stroking mine. I wanted to follow her when she pulled away, but she laid her forehead against mine so I couldn't. I opened my eyes and her gaze captured me.

"Good girls get rewards, don't they? Tinea."

I shuddered from the velvet in her tone, and nodded eagerly.

"Then," she said, flicking her tongue against my upper lip and lightly biting the tip of my nose, "you'd better be a good girl and finish your work, yes?"

"Yes." I nodded again, quickly. "I will."

"Good."

With that, she petted the back of my head once or twice, dragged her fingers down my hair and kissed me on the forehead, before taking the case under one arm and turning me around before shoving me forward slightly. "Get to it."

Unable to help myself, I twirled around and gave her a salute in the middle with a cheesy grin.

"Yes, ma'am!"

Snorting, she shook her head and lifted the case into the airlock of the spider that dipped down for her, before climbing after it to stow it. I'd take care of securing everything with silk and glue in a little bit, but for now, we were just making sure everything had a place in the cramped space of the abdomen.

We'd already moved whatever boosters, pills, gadgets, and weaponry we'd gathered over the last two days, and as I looked around myself, I saw nothing left lying on the ground, except for my Myriad standing sentinel.

Well. This was it, wasn't it? Packed up and ready to leave.

Hmm. I'd throw one last look at the uplink, make sure it was properly hidden and safe.

I skipped and dashed across the court to where I'd buried it, and actually had trouble locating it until AI-I threw its outline into my visual cortex.

Huh. The mud and drizzle had completely removed any traces of my labor, the fallen tree that the Three had gnawed on just looked miserable and naturally sick until it collapsed, and the place was fundamentally uninviting. Yeah, couldn't have done better myself.

Even the dish segments disguised as leaves looked bedraggled and just unappetizing to even contemplate looking at in detail.

Shrugging my shoulders and happy with the results, I decided to not mess with things and leave them exactly as they were, and moved back to the spider just as Leah dropped out of the airlock herself.

For a few moments, we both just stayed silent as we looked about, really taking in the fact that we were done. That we were free. That we'd survived this dreary, sick place more or less intact, that we'd come out a lot stronger, and that we were actually looking forward to getting to the place where we wanted to be.

Leah smiled at me warmly, took my hand, and pulled me in front of her, tucking me in under her chin with my back to her chest and my antennae splayed to the sides. It'd become a familiar comfort, this hug with her arms around my shoulders. Warm and soft and just…comfy.

My tail lazily circled around one of her legs as I easily supported her, my fingers curled around her forearms and a soft sigh escaped me, along with some tension in my shoulders that I hadn't even noticed before.

"Job's done?" I asked her.

"Yup. Job's done." Leah answered.

After a few more seconds I tapped her arms, and she released me with a peck to the side of my neck that I tilted my head for, before she went to climb up into the spider again.

I quickly grabbed the Myriad and put it on for convenience of transportation, then followed Leah by hopping upwards into the hatch and catching myself with my arms on its circular inside rim.

The living space was lit in a soft red-gold by a smattering of tiny LEDs across the ceiling, giving the tiny cabin a cozy feeling. Immediately next to me, towards the rear of the abdomen, was Leah's egg—now turned into the spider's piloting pod and escape vehicle—stuck halfway into a compartment in the rear wall with its legs folded out of the way and into that compartment. There were tiny crawl spaces through which the sides of the pod's trunk could be accessed, and that's where we'd stow some of our crap, nice and not underfoot.

A tiny bunk sat above the pod and a little further into the rear, with only a meter's space to the curved ceiling above it. It could just about fit me, and Leah would either have to rest in her creche in the pod, or on top of me with at least her legs detached. Possibly her arms, too.

The longing for the simple companionship of my girlfriend's weight pressing into me as we slept had my eyes hooking onto Leah, who was currently sitting on the floor, studying the tiny high-tech camping kitchen recessed into the wall.

…

Hmm. Would we actually sleep at the same time?

It should be safe, considering we had friendly AIs to keep watch for us and who could wake us up if trouble came to visit. And there was no way this alien, futuristic mech didn't have an autopilot, so we wouldn't even need to stop to rest, would we?

Oh. Still gotta see how the Quanta and its buds affect my ability to sleep in the first place. …What if I can't even fall asleep anymore?

Well, that was a bunch of concern I wasn't quite prepared for. And mostly, I'd just have to see, wouldn't I? Yeah.

I pulled myself all the way up into the spider, and glanced down as the hatch automatically closed up behind me. The thing had a thick rim on the inside that could apparently telescope up to inflate a transparent bladder, within which the air would be cleansed and recycled, turning the hatch into an actual airlock if the spider's environment required it.

But since the walking tank was sitting inside the very center of the crater, where the air was generally breathable even for extended periods, a simple hatch would do.

The living space was effectively a one-man—scratch that, one-woman—tent that could fit two in a pinch. Small, cozy, and very reminiscent of our cocoon. Which, looking at Leah who was completely relaxed in here, I figured wasn't an accident.

I slipped out of the Myriad and placed it on top of the hatch, such that I'd only need to hop into it and let it hug me up again with its satin embrace, ready to be used. A few quick dabs of silk secured it against spontaneous ballistic tendencies, and then I was ready to jump Leah for a quick squeeze, who was only too happy to receive me and gifted me with a warm smile.

Which I had to kiss, of course. Obviously.

"Hey, love," she said, and I absolutely melted with mushy joy at the endearment.

"Hey yourself, sweetie," I replied. "Ready to go?"

"Yep." She nudged my nose with hers. "As soon as you've nailed everything down. I'll give Daddy-Long-Legs a good shakedown, figure out how he moves and what I can do with him, yeah? Might wanna make sure the insides won't turn into a blender, meanwhile."

"Fair enough," I giggled, and got up to handle shaping the internals of our mobile home and hearth, while Leah disappeared into the pod.

I grabbed the ancient PC and extruded a few soft rolls of silk to cushion it, before bending over to shove it into one of the crawling spaces. Leah's white, misty eye showed up on her pod's rounded surface again and—entirely by accident, I'm sure—kept staring at my bum. Which I was wiggling—also entirely by accident—while I was on all fours, securing the PC with more silken ropes and glue.

Hmm… I smiled sneakily.

"Tynea, could you help me tie this knot?" I asked quite loudly, quite unnecessarily. "Let's make sure it'll stay…snug. And tight. Yes."

There was a moment of silence. I figured Leah was quite occupied, imagining what must've been a highly fascinating picture of me tying down…things with a rope.

I giggled at her helpless groan.

***