Tats, Awake

Tat's voice was soft but self-assured. Grimm couldn't be sure but it sounded like she'd been awake for a while and had only now decided to make her voice heard. Tats was taking great care not to wake her sleeping friends. "Hey," she whispered, planting a soft kiss on his chest. "You're awake."

"Yeah," Grimm replied, keeping his voice down. "I woke up... couldn't get back to sleep. I guess I've got some stuff on my mind." He carefully maneuvered his arm around Lennox, who was snuggled against Tats's back, and brought his hand up to Tats's head. The cow sighed and leaned into his touch as the bull ran his fingers through her hair. His hands were rough but his touch was gentle... sweet.

Tats's blue eyes seemed to shine in the moonlight. They were soft, knowing, yet crystalline, as if they knew something about Grimm he didn't, couldn't. "Are you alright?" she asked. "What's on your mind?" There were these little moments, frozen and impenetrable, that held tight in Grimm's mind. The desire to stay nagged at him, tore at him. But he couldn't. Not now, not yet.

"Yeah," Grimm said, nearly sighing. "I'm alright. I guess... I keep thinking about the future, is all." It was weird to say it aloud. It was weird, being so vulnerable. Grimm blamed it on post-coital sleep, blamed it on his exhaustion, but these excuses fell flat even in his own mind. They felt like lies, all of them.

"What about it?" Tats nuzzled him, then looked back at him with those beautiful blue eyes.

"I keep thinking about what I'm going to do, once all of this is over. My quest, I mean."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah." He kept stroking her scalp, occasionally teasing the back of her neck with his fingers. "Where I'll go, that kind of thing."

"And?"

"And..." The great bull paused. "I guess... I don't know."

Tats's hand snaked its way toward Grimm's neck. Her fingers found his flesh and she began to stroke him. He eased into her touch. "You can tell me, Grimm."

"I keep thinking, 'how great would it be to live with the Raiders?'" There. He'd said it. It felt good to say it. "'How happy would I be, spending my days with these women... well, forever?'" Grimm sighed.

Tats was softly smiling. She pressed her cheek against Grimm's shoulder and nuzzled him once more. "Doesn't sound so bad, if you ask me." She lazily winked. "But why are you so hung up on it? What's standing in the way?"

"Standing in the way?"

"Of your happiness." Tats looked sleepy, but invested. Were it not for this conversation she would likely fall back asleep. "I mean... that's a little dramatic, but if it makes you happy why not do it?" She paused, blushed a little. "It's not like we would mind. Reese certainly wouldn't. I certainly wouldn't."

Grimm lazily smiled. "Oh, yeah?"

"I mean... yeah. I've only known you for a few days, but you're a lot of fun. And you're a lot nicer than you pretend to be."

"No way." Grimm was bemused.

"Totally." Her smile widened. "You just pretend to be a big, strong oaf who only cares about himself. But we totally wore you down, didn't we?"

Grimm was quiet for a minute. Then he spoke, looking up at the ceiling. "Maybe you have."

"Is that such a bad thing?"

"No... no, I guess not. But it's strange. New."

Tats kissed his chest again. He was starting to look forward to every kiss, to this new, foreign thing that she so casually introduced into his life. That's not to say that Grimm had never kissed, or that he didn't enjoy it as a rule -- but with Tats it was just something they did, something she enjoyed doing with him and that he was learning to enjoy just as much as she did. Her lips were warm, inviting... his flesh tingled at her hot breath.

"Tats..." Grimm sighed, not out of annoyance but out of contentment. He was getting used to this. "I... I think I want to stay here. After I'm done with the job, I mean."

Tats's reaction was perhaps a bit more subdued than Grimm had been expecting, though to be fair she wasn't, for example, Buttercup, who no doubt would have woken everyone up with her exuberant shouting. "Good," was all she said. The word was loaded, and quiet, and hot against Grimm's body. "Good..."

"Yeah?"

"Of course," Tats cooed. She began to stroke his body with one hand. "By the way, my name is Joy."

"Joy?"

"Not Tats. I mean, like, it's obviously not my real name, y'know, but it's been my nickname for so long I genuinely think some of the newer girls think it's my real name."

"Joy..."

She chuckled softly, barely audibly. "Yeah. That's me."

"I like it."

She cooed happily and pressed herself harder against him. "Good." She laughed again. "Ugh. You know, if we weren't cooped up like this..."

"Yeah?"

"...I'd, uh, fuck you senseless. Before you leave."

Grimm smiled and leaned over so that he could nuzzle Tats with his forehead. The thought of leaving was getting harder to stomach, even though the great bull knew it was necessary. He chuckled, low enough that it wouldn't wake anyone. "Oh, yeah?"

"Yeah." Tats glanced over her shoulder at a slumbering Lennox, who was lazily clinging to her. "But we'd totally wake everyone up... I don't know if you'd make it through another fivesome."

"I'd sleep like a dream, though."

"True." Tats sighed. "I'm... gonna miss you. Is that weird? We don't really know each other, but..." She shrugged.

"Not weird at all. I'll miss you too."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah." He meant it, too. It felt like ages since he'd been a rough-and-tumble brawler, picking fights in bars and busting heads for a handful of coins. How had these women so easily changed him?

"Grimm..." Her voice was a soft whisper.

"Yeah?"

"Kiss me, okay?"

Grimm didn't respond, he just leant over so that his lips hovered near Tats's. She took his invitation and pressed her mouth to his, leaning into him with a sigh. Grimm had one arm wrapped around a sleeping Daisy, but he carefully moved it without disturbing her. Once his arm was free Grimm cupped Tats's face with his hand and stroked her cheek, not breaking his kiss. Tats purred happily and sank deeper into his kiss

A thought occurred to Grimm. He moved his hand down Tat's body, gently teasing her flesh with the tips of his fingers, and when he found her crotch he began to caress her. Tats let out a happy sigh and shifted her legs just enough to accommodate Grimm's fingers. Her thick thighs nearly held his hand in place as he teased her clit.

Their kiss did not break even as two of Grimm's fingers slipped into Tats's moist sex. The lusty cow made another happy sound, breath sharpening with pleasure. Not to be outdone, Tats maneuvered her hand down to Grimm's groin, where she quickly found his cock. She stroked and teased his member, caressed it, doing what she could to make him hard. It didn't take long -- Grimm was soon turgid, ready, and Tats took it as an invitation to wrap her hand around it. She began to jerk him off as he fingered her, lips still sealed against his.

They moaned into each other, being as loud as they could be without waking anyone up. Their tongues slipped into each other's mouths and danced over one another, and they both fought the urge to shrug their companions away and fully wrap around one another's bodies. But they didn't -- they continued to masturbate each other in loving silence.

Tats was the first to cum. Her juices slicked Grimm's fingers but he kept fingering her, kept teasing her clit, until he was sure that she was totally satisfied. And then it was his turn, and when Tats could feel his orgasm surge through his crotch she aimed his cock toward the end of the bed and kept stroking it, playing with him until he shot his load onto the end of the bed and onto the floor. It wasn't a very powerful ejaculation, and this did not bother him. His body slackened against hers. He was spent.

They kissed for a while longer, but sleep was encroaching upon them so they soon stopped. Tats stroked Grimm's chest, tracing his muscles with her finger.

"That was nice..." Tats purred, planting a smooch on the side of Grimm's neck.

"Yeah..." Grimm replied, straining his neck so he could kiss her forehead. He fell silent and looked up at the ceiling. Slowly he scanned toward the window and the stars behind. Then he watched the sky for a while.

It wasn't exactly impulsive, what he said, but he hadn't been planning on saying it, either.

"You know... if you wanted to come with me, I wouldn't stop you."

It took a moment for Tats to realize what Grimm was saying -- not due to a lack of comprehension, but because of the fog of sleep. "What?"

"You can... come with me, if you want."

Her eyes widened a little. "But... why?"

"You're fun to be around." Grimm smiled.

"I..." Tats fell silent. "The girls would miss me. Buttercup... I'm worried they'd resent me if I left."

"I understand." He was disappointed, but he understood.

"But... I wanna come with you. I really do."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. But I won't leave them for good."

"I wouldn't ask that of you."

"Good. I..." Silence again. "I'll talk to Reese first thing in the morning. The girls, too."

"Okay," Grimm said, unable to hide his sleepy smile. "I guess we should get some sleep then, huh?"

"Yeah," Tats said, beaming. "I guess we should." So she pressed her body as tight against Grimm's as she could, and within minutes was asleep. Grimm, too.