“YEAH!”  The boy hadn’t heard the entrance to the compound opening or closing, but Roxie’s celebrations were boisterous and numerous.  “People’s champ!”  He sat in the living room, watching a vid from the library.  It seemed to be an extremely old story about zombies.  Only 2 dimensional, but still entertaining.  “Ah!  I’m glad to see you’re making yourself comfortable!”

 

“Took me a little while to figure out, but yeah.”

 

“Ok good!”  She came up behind him and leaned over the couch.  Her face poked out into his peripheral vision, and he turned a little toward her.  “Listen.  I’m pretty pooped, so I’m gonna go get some sleep.  I might make some noises, but just ignore it, ok?  Don’t come in.  ”  Her face seemed to lose some of it’s humor.  ”At all.”  All of it’s humor.  “For any reason.  Under penalty of death.”  Beez swallowed hard and nodded.  She narrowed her eyes for a moment longer, and then grinned inexplicably.  “Ok!  GoNight!”

 

He smiled weakly as she bounced up and skipped to the hallway.  He turned to watch over his shoulder, and then sat back down.  How long should he wait?  20 minutes?  An hour?  Two?

 

The vid he was watching was over after another hour, but long before that he started hearing Roxie behind him.  At first, it sounded like she was talking to someone.  Far too animatedly for him to get close to her, he thought, so he put it off.  Another half hour after that, she was screaming.  He jumped up and ran to the edge of the hallway.  It was awful.  A deeply harrowing scream; one of true terror.  

 

Even if he hadn’t planned on going in anyway, he would have been torn between following instructions and wanting to go in to help her.  Worry creased his face.  Still, he resisted the urge.  He waited as the screams died down, and by the two hour mark, she was inaudible from his spot at the end of the hall.  

 

As he got closer to the door, he realized she wasn’t completely silent.  There was a soft wheeze, like a cold October night through a thick window.  He was pretty sure she hadn’t locked the door.  There appeared to be no way to do so that he could find, and he had searched thoroughly beforehand to make sure this would work.  Just as he suspected, his hand was able to turn the knob as he crept up to the door.  

 

Roxie was huddled in the middle of her bed, sitting with her knees drawn up to her chest.  Her hands were pressed tightly over her ears. She rocked slightly, wheezing on the exhale as she pulled tight to her knees.  She seemed completely unaware of him as he slipped in.  Her widened and terrified eyes were red-rimmed, cheeks puffy, and she stared at nothing.  

 

“You’ll regret this later,” she whispered as Beez crept up next to her.  Far too late to back out now, he thought.  He raised his arm, and HSST!

 

Beez hadn’t realized she'd stripped halfway out of her bodysuit.  As she fell to her side, he noticed the empty sleeves lying behind her.  He started to run around the bed to make sure she didn’t fall and hurt herself, but she wasn’t unconscious.  Her eyes even seemed… more?... attentive than before?  

 

"What... what did you do?"  She blinked and looked around like she wasn't sure where she was.  For the first time, Beez got a good look at her whole torso.  Her left shoulder was indeed covered in a huge burn scar, and he saw more than one scar on top of that, including a fresh one where she’d recently been shot.  The burn scar crossed her chest, tapering off at the neck and traveling just slightly into her cleavage, if you could call it that.  

 

Her breasts were very small.  Smaller than Eliza’s.  The more he saw them, the more he realized he'd always equated size with beauty, with desirability, and then how wrong he was.  Her nipples were a light brown color, suitably small to fit with the rest of her.  It was funny how the force of her personality had colored his impression of her.  Roxie was explosive and larger than life.  Here, stripped naked, he finally saw how small she was.  How thin. 

 

Roxie's arms crossed over her chest, conveying a discomfort that shocked Beez.  He'd been certain that if she was unhappy with something he was doing, especially something this private, he'd get his nose broken.  His eyes travelled up to her right shoulder.  

 

He'd been right.  There was a leaf and vine tattoo that covered her right shoulder to a nearly identical degree, right down to the way it trailed off in her theoretical cleavage.  There was a beautiful symmetry to the placement of the flowers with what appeared to be the worst of the scarring.  

 

“I’m s-s-sorry," he stammered.  "I shouldn’t stare."  Roxie nodded, but she didn't meet his eye.  She looked... despondent?   "I got The Motherfucker to make me a truth serum."

 

"I see." she said.

 

"I'm tired of not knowing anything.  I'm an accomplice now, and God Damnit, I want answers!"  Roxie flinched as he cursed.  What the hell is happening, he thought.  

 

Despite the odd reaction, she nodded reluctantly.  "I'll tell you anything."  She sounded so... weak!  He wanted answers, but he hadn’t wanted to break her!

 

"First of all, who is Viktor?"

 

"He's the man who killed your family.  He works for Long Chemicals in a Public Relations capacity."  Her eyes seemed just a little heavy.  She wrapped her arms more tightly around herself and tucked her legs up in front of herself again.   When she talked, she droned.  Monotonously.  It had none of her characteristic exuberance or unpredictability.

 

"Is that supposed to be ironic?"

 

"No.  He really does do PR work for them, but he also gets his hands dirty."  

 

"And the other three men you keep tabs on?"

 

"Contract killers."

 

"Why do you keep tabs on them."

 

"Four years ago, I was part of a group of protesters and activists here in The Bottom.  We were small time, throwing paint on people and picketing.  Letter writing campaigns.  Getting signatures on petitions.  That sort of thing.  We were idealistic.  And naive.   

 

"But we grew frustrated with the lack of response from the various agencies we were advocating to.  We got the bright idea to break into a Long Chemicals facility and see what we could find.  We found a small, out of the way location.  One guard.  Limited resources.  No one was going to get hurt.  

 

"Someone betrayed us.  10 hours before we were supposed to move forward with our plan, our headquarters was firebombed.  I barely crawled out alive.  No one else made it out.  15 of the best friends I ever had.   15 piles of ash.  

 

"As I laid there half dead, four men picked me up and carried me off.  I was… thankful, until I realized that I wasn’t being taken to get medical attention.  They took me into a nearby alley and raped me.  Each of them. They taunted me, and they mocked me.  Called me a freak. Then they shot me here,” she touched her left bicep, “here,” breastplate, “and here,” at the very tip of the scarring in the middle of her chest.  “And then they left me for dead.”

 

 She’d delivered all of that in a measured, even voice.  Almost robotically.  Beez was silent for several minutes.  He had every right to feel a little sorry for himself.  The murder of his parents was tragic, but he hadn’t suspected her story could be as bad as his.  Or worse.  He needed a new topic.

 

"How did you overcome a rogue AI?"

 

Her tone was the same when she started again.  "I didn’t.  When I stole him, I was terrified of maintaining control over something so much smarter than me, so I installed him and trashed the Mini-Fab.  Then when I turned him on, I told him that I'd had to wipe him once already and that I'd do it again."  No smile.  No twinkle in her eye.  Just flat.  "He spins his wheels trying to figure out how beat him, but he never will."

 

"That's kind of brilliant..."  She just shrugged.  "Where did this place come from?"

 

"It was my Grandmothers home.  She and her sister lived here.  This home predates the hospital that was built, and later destroyed, around it."

 

"Why do you keep such weird hours?  60 hours awake has gotta take quite a toll."

 

She sighed before continuing.  "I take a cocktail of stimulants.  They give me increased awareness, fearlessness, shorter reaction time, decisiveness, and a few others. The side effects are... numerous.  And unpleasant."

 

"If it's so awful, why do you take it?"

 

"Because...  because..."  It seems to crash down on her all at once.  "Because if I don’t do something, no one else will!"

 

"Because of what happened to The Bottom?"

 

She didn't respond, only lowered her head.

 

"Because of what happened to your friends?"

 

The red rings on her eyelids were back as she nodded.  "My family.  And my fiancé."

 

Beez whistled silently.  "Someone in that group?"  She only nodded.  "Did you love him?"

 

She nodded again.  "He's the only person I've ever known who thought I was beautiful.  All of me."

 

"That's absurd!"

 

"Shut up, Beez."

 

"No, I'm serious!  You’re very pretty!"

 

"You don't know what you're saying."

 

"So are you telling me you haven't had sex since..."  Beez stopped, because he knew she had.  He'd almost forgotten.

 

"No.  I have sex. I just don't give them the option of liking me, or rejecting me."

 

"Why would anyone reject you?"

 

Roxie stood up so suddenly that the boy nearly fell off the bed.  Her stare was a totally different kind of fierce than he was used to from her.  She stood there, bare chested for a moment.  She’s magnificent, he thought.  Beaten, but not broken.  A wildflower in full bl-

 

And then she pulled the rest of her suit down.  Her stare changed not a hair.  Defiant.  Beez’s eyes were immediately drawn to her genitals, as any heterosexual man's would, and he stammered at the small penis hanging inexplicably from just above her vagina.  It was like a thumb.

 

"Tell me again," she snarled.  "Tell me I'm beautiful.  Tell me I'm pretty."  The boy found himself utterly without words.  His mind was out to lunch.  "Tell me how you've always wanted to fuck a boy, or something vaguely boy-like.  Tell me how being twice my size makes you finally feel like a man.  Tell me how-"

 

"You're beautiful..."

 

Righteous indignation flared around her for a moment, but the awe on the boys face was plain.  He was staring at a goddess.   Baptised by fire and hardened by life in an unforgiving place, but still fragile and delicate.  The burns and the flowers.  The male and the female.  The contrasts!  My God! 

 

"You're the most beautiful thing I've ever seen..."

 

His eyes traveled up her body, taking in every curve and every flaw.  He watched her face as years of self doubt, abuse, and rejection stepped aside, and behind them stood a shy little girl, full of love and joy.  They hadn't killed her after all.  

 

"...what?"

 

He stood up on the bed.  She was still several inches taller than him, but she seemed to shrink as he stepped closer to her.  Her shoulders tucked in tighter, and her fists unfurled to lay flat against her slim hips.

 

"Beez, what are you doing?"

 

Her purple eyes shimmered as he grabbed her arms and closed.  Such a beautiful color, he thought as she shut them.  The harder he tried to stand up on his toes, the more he sank into the bed, but then she was leaning down...  Her lips were wet, and slightly salty from tears.  The boy prayed for the tears not to be a sign of impending rejection, that she was about to push him away.  

 

Slowly, the rigidity she’d adopted at his approach melted.  Her shoulders lowered.  Her arms relaxed, and he felt her hands on his sides.  Mostly, though, he noticed her lips.  Their kiss was light.  Tentative.  Both still so fearful of rejection, they only escalated after several minutes.  Her tongue slipped between his shocked lips, and for the first time in his life, Beez tasted someone else's saliva.  

 

He quickly copied her, leaning to the side so his tongue had room to slide past hers.  Despite a deep yearning to grope her, his hands held firm on her arms.  There's only going to be one first time, his father had told him.  Make it count and make it last.

 

Her hands began to slide up and over his chest, ending with her thumbs touching and her fingertips just shy of the neck of his bodysuit.  Her eyes were impossibly large as he pulled back.  He'd forgotten how to breath.  She looked down, almost fearfully, as she grasped the suit and pulled.  The boys hands fell away from her, and she disrobed him.  

 

They stood inches apart, naked but unconnected.  He stared down at her barely-there breasts as they rose with each nervous breath.  He floated a hand towards her, undecided if he should roam up or down, when she grabbed it and held it fast to her middle.

 

"Please,” she said, her eyes searching his face.  “I just want to be a girl right now."  

 

The boy nodded, though he was slower to comprehend than to react.  Ah!  Up it is.  Her hand guided him, held with him, squeezed with him.  His fingers pressed into her skin, isolating the mound from the muscle around it.  It fit in the palm of his hand.  She leaned her head towards him, and with foreheads touching, they both watched as he fondled her.  The way her shoulders twitched gave him a kick of confidence, and he raised his other hand up to her other breast.  She sighed and leaned into him, mashing her little tits into (and through!) his hands.  Her nipples had stiffened against him.  He managed to catch both between the folds of his palms, and he dragged them around as he swirled his hands around her torso.  

 

She gave a little gasp, and her hands settled over his, holding them in place.  It's too much, he thought.  They must be sensitive.  Her lips sought him out, and with great sorrow, his hands slid down to her hips.  However, his cock had just risen enough to be trying to push up between her pussy lips again.  They both gasped this time; her at his touch, and him at how swollen her pussy had become.  He'd literally just had a dream like this...

 

Roxie grabbed his hands, giving them a light squeeze as she squatted and laid down on her back.  The boy followed her, kneeling between her legs.  His cock was at full attention as she pulled him down on top of her.  It occurred to him that vulnerable might have been the right word as she stared up at him, her huge purple eyes locked with his.  

 

"Gently," she said.  

 

The boy didn’t need to look down.  His cock had reached out to find her.  He watched her face transition from nervous, to slightly afraid, to flush, to a longing glance with bitten lip as he slid inside her.  She twitched when he pressed up against her inflated pussy.  Not a painful twitch, but a just-the-right-amount-of-pain-to-go-with-this-pleasure twitch.  One of her hands reached up to cup his face.  He nuzzled against it as he drew back.  The boy opened his mouth, and pulled her thumb between his lips.  Her cheeks glowed.  

 

Her legs were split out beside him, and he felt her bare feet curl in against his back.  He settled into a slow rhythm.  Make it count, and make it last.  He wasn't too sure about the make it last part, but he was certainly gonna make it count.  

 

Her free hand reached out to take one of his, and she planted it on her chest.  Flat on her back, they were almost non-existent, but as she pressed his palm down he felt the breast squirm underneath.  She writhed and reached for his other hand.  Slowly, he put more and more of his weight on the hand on her chest.  She pinched one eye shut, and the other one rolled up behind her eyelid until he was able to press down on both equally.  Even then, her eye only rolled back down to look at him.  Keeping his balance required constant minor adjustments, and her breasts slid up and down over the muscle below, and that over her ribs beneath.  

 

He twisted at the wrist so that his fingers wrapped around her ribs, and she cried out as her nipples twisted against his palms.  She threw her head back, and the boy took a long look at her graceful neck.  Grip secured, he thrusted slightly faster, although he never more than brushed her pussy.  

 

She huffed, vocalizing each breath so lightly.  The boy grimaced as he continued, fighting the inevitable.  Everything became tight.  His butt cheeks clenched, and his fingers gripped her torso.  Hearing her finally tipped him over.  The faint sounds she made… His teeth ground together, and with a yell he suppressed until the last possible second, he came.  His elbows shook and quivered, and Roxie’s cry increased to match his.  He wasn’t sure if she was finishing with him, but he knew he couldn’t keep going.  

 

He collapsed in stages.  First one hand flung out to catch himself as he toppled to the side, and then the arm gave out and he landed on that elbow.  He rolled a little, and his cock slipped out of her.  Finally, he rolled over onto his back.  Her leg twined around one of his by the knee.  He felt her writhe, and he looked over to see her sink her fingers into her gloriously pink pussy.  He reached out and grabbed her arm.

 

“Wait,” he panted.

 

“It’s ok.  I can finish myself.”

 

“No.  I want to do it.”  Somehow, her face turned even redder.  “Just give me a minute.”  Her fingers didn’t stop, but they did move farther down and much slower.  The way her face melted into the pillow as she stared at him was making his cheeks glow too.  It was hard to break his stare with her.  Just watching her was making the boy salivate.  Yes, he definitely wanted to touch her, to feel her, and to finish her.  Oh yes.  

 

He took a few more breaths, puffing out the last one emphatically, and whirled around on the bed.  He placed one elbow against the back of her knee, and the other down on the bed just beside her abs.  Roxie’s cock stood straight up.  Her foreskin covered all but the very tip.  It reminded him very much of her drawings.  Not one in particular but the shape of it, a stalk not quite ready to bloom, all alone.  She had no balls.  Just beyond, her pussy still throbbed and glistened.  Her clit peeked out from between her lips, just as swollen as everything else around it.  

 

His focus was on her cock though.  It probably was half his size, which kind of did make him feel pretty good about himself, but he smiled knowing he could probably do something with this.  If Roxie had a cock like he did, he’d probably run screaming.  His fingers began tracing lightly over her pussy, and she moaned.  She had said she just wanted to be treated like a girl, but if he got her warmed up to the idea, maybe she wouldn’t mind.  

 

His fingers slipped between her lips.  They shuddered with each movement, vibrating on a frequency all their own.  Roxie’s cock straightened up just a little more, and her foreskin pulled back ever so slightly.  He couldn’t restrain himself any longer, and he swallowed the whole thing in one bite.  She kicked out her legs, lifting both of them up off the bed slightly, but she didn’t resist.  She didn’t stop him.  She had a musky taste.  His tongue had just enough room to slide back and push down on her foreskin, and he felt one of her hands run through his hair.  

 

Good, he thought.  His cheeks got a little more heated as he thought about how this looked, but he owed this woman so much.  He owed her his life several times over.  To hell with owing her this, I kind of like it!  His lips pressed against her pelvis.  He ran his tongue up and down, replacing and removing her foreskin many times over.  Two of his fingers moved inside her.  He shuddered as her fingers scratched lightly along his scalp.  

 

Suddenly, her free hand grabbed his cock.  He hadn’t even realized he’d gone fully erect again.  She pushed him.  He rolled onto his hip and inch wormed across the bed until she wrapped her lips around his cock.  He groaned, and renewed his tongues efforts.  His fingers kept a steady beat, and he started bobbing his head in counterpoint.  Fingers in, lips out to the tip: fingers out, lips down to the base.  

 

She stayed near the edge, using her hand to stroke him off.  His head swelled in her mouth, and he wished she would do more.  He twitched his legs, thrusting at her as much as he could, and her hand fell away.  He heard her groan around his dick, and she thrusted a little at him too.  He lowered his head one final time, sucking as hard as he could and letting his tongue run rampant over her head while his fingers worked feverishly.  Her pussy filled his eyes, and it jiggled as she finally came.  He was a little shocked when she didn’t produce anything in his mouth, but he hadn’t really thought far enough ahead to know what he was going to do with that anyway.  Her muffled panting rose up in pitch for several seconds before drifting back down to her normal octave.

 

He’d done it.  He’d finished her.  He felt an elation in his gut, knowing it was due more to effort than just that he had a penis and was in the area.  He could do this.  

 

And then he got a little bold.  Her sucking had almost slowed to a stop, and he didn’t think he was that far away.  He kicked his leg out and rolled over top of her.  She whimpered in surprise as half of his cock disappeared into her mouth.  He braced himself, sure that he was crossing the line.  Sure that she was about to throw him through the door, suit or no suit.  

 

…

 

…

 

…

 

And then she started bobbing her head up and down.  He grabbed a fistful of bed sheet in each hand and lowered himself just a little more.  She couldn’t go all the way, but he didn’t need her too.  He only needed her to go for just a little longer…

 

Oh god, just a little longer!

 

With a ferocious groan that shocked even him, Beez filled her mouth to the brim.  His eyes crossed, one lid fluttering halfway down, the other raised as far as it would go.   He felt her tongue pinch him against the roof of her mouth as she swallowed, and he fell to his side.  

 

They both panted for several minutes, laying head to foot.  Beez started to remember how this all started, with him having drugged her, and he felt a little more uncomfortable.  Once his legs got a modicum of strength back, he started to lift himself up off the bed.

 

“Beez?”

 

“I should-”

 

“Stay with me until I fall asleep?”

 

He looked back up at her.  She looked more like she had when he came in than she had at any point since, and he felt that same urge to protect her that he’d felt in the hall.  “Of course…”

 

It was wonderful how good she felt laying her head on his shoulder, one leg tossed over his and an arm draped over his stomach.  Sleep was soon in coming for her, but his mind raced and raced and raced.  After an hour, he gently disentangled himself and slipped out the door.

 

He’d been asleep for a week, so the last thing he wanted was to lay back down again.  He danced.  He did the robot, he did the wave, and he did this little march thing that doesn’t really have a name but he likes it.  Even if it is a little dorky.  He tried to watch a vid, but he couldn’t focus at all.  He’d had seeeeex!!  And it was awesome!!!!!!!

 

He got horny again a little while later and masturbated.  It took him almost 30 minutes to finish.

 

***

 

He was eating a bowl of cereal when he heard Roxie’s door bang open several hours later.  He’d completely lost track of time.  She came striding around the corner of the hall, fully dressed in her suit and duster, and the look she gave him took his good mood and threw it right out the window.  She walked into the kitchen, and right in stride, stepped up on a chair, and then up onto the table.  She kicked his bowl of cereal behind him and stepped on to the armrests of the chair.  Beez sank a little as she squatted down to stare him in the eye.

 

“Do you have any idea what you’ve done?”

 

“Uh..n-n-n-n-no?”

 

“You’ve.  Ruined.  Everything.”

 

“What? wha-wha-how?”

 

“She’s in love with you, moron!”

 

“She?”

 

“YES!  I didn’t want to bring you here at all, but she insisted.”

 

“Wait, are you… Are you two different people?”

 

“What?  Do I look crazy to you?”  She scoffed and rolled her eyes.  “Am I two different people.  No!  But now I have to make extra sure you’re safe!  As if keeping you from dying wasn’t hard enough before, now I’m all...ugh...emotionally invested.”  Her lips twisted.  “I don’t really do emotions, kid.  Why do you think I normally dope you up with hallucinogens when we fuck?!”

 

“Wait , what?”

 

“And you!  You’re just gonna follow me around even more uselessly now!”  She squinted and leaned even closer.  “Probably try to do something stupid like throwing yourself in front of a bullet too.  Ugh.  I was so close!”

 

“No!  No!  I’m still committed!  I still want to do my part!  I promise!”

 

“They killed your parents, you know.”  

 

Beez swallowed hard.  One whiff of a naked woman was all it had taken to throw all his well-deserved rage out a window.  He colored in embarrassment.  She slapped him, and when he whipped back around to stare at her, one of her fingers hovered menacingly between his eyes.

 

“I am going to kill those men.  You can either help me, or get the fuck out of here right the fuck now.”

 

“I want to help!”  She leaned a little closer, and her eyes twitched.  “I promise!!”

 

She grunted, and stood up.  She frowned at him as she planted a foot on the back of his chair and tipped it backwards.  She landed smoothly, continuing on towards the oven as he crashed to the floor.  “Sorry about your Wheatie-o’s.  You want some eggs?”

 

“Ugh,” he groaned, as he rolled over onto his hands and knees.  “Yeah.  Can we go back to the part where you use a hallucinogen on me?”

 

“No.  Ask me later, and don’t spray me in the face with water again.  It’s just rude.”

 

“Water?!  That Motherfucker!”

 

“Yeah, he’s kind of an asshole!”

 

Beez thought about asking more questions now, but stimulant Roxie was bristling this morning.  Maybe this was how she always was in the first little while after taking it.  Maybe she really was pissed at him.  He’d have to wait and see.  It’s probably best to save all my really important questions for a few days from now... 

She glared at him over her shoulder.   ...if I survive that long.