DISCLAIMER: Mutant X is owned by Tribune Entertainment and I make no profit from having a little fun with the characters.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Oh, and ~denotes thoughts~
ARCHIVING: Only with the permission of the author.

Gentle Reminder
By Anne Ona Mouse

Shalimar's eyes suddenly opened and she sat up in bed, fully alert. She relaxed some after her mind identified the sounds as someone rustling around in the kitchen. Looking at her clock, she noticed that is was shortly after 2:30 a.m. She ran through the possible culprits in her mind. ~Adam is probably awake, but he doesn't usually take a snack break from his 'all-nighters' until about 3:30 or 4:00 and he's usually much quieter. Jesse tends to be very noisy in the kitchen, but he also plans ahead and takes a sandwich or two with him when he goes to bed. That leaves Brennan or Emma.~

Shalimar knew that it was useless for her to try going back to sleep without finding out who it was, so she rolled over and dropped gracefully from her bunk bed onto the floor. A quick glance in the mirror by the door told her that she was decent and presentable, so she headed to the kitchen. As her eyes were drawn to the single light by the couch, she saw Emma curled in a ball with a coffee cup and a book. Shalimar flared her nostrils and breathed deeply, ~ah, hot chocolate, definitely a comfort food!~. Earlier, she had caught Adam staring at a blank computer screen and he had expressed his concern over Emma's comment that he could keep his trust, she would stick to the sure thing. Between that, the hot chocolate and the late hour, she knew it was time to be a listening ear.

"All that noise for a cup of hot chocolate? I was expecting one of Brennan's spectacular 3-course midnight snacks!" Shalimar joked to break the ice.

Startled, Emma almost spilled the hot chocolate before putting down the book and responding, "I'm sorry, my favorite mug was in the dishwasher, so I had to fish it out and wash it and…never mind, I didn't mean to wake you. I just figured that I would read a little before trying to get back to sleep."

Shalimar plopped onto the couch next to her and picked up the book, "Going back to sleep, huh? Then why would you be reading one of Jesse's Stephen King books? Usually, if I want to get to sleep, I grab something from Adam's office! You still bugged that Kyle, or whatever his name was, pulled one over on you?"

"How could I not be!" Emma replied, the sharpness in her voice showed how raw the emotional wound was. "I mean, I fell head over heals for this guy, just because I wasn't picking up any stray emotions and then, when we kissed…You know what really gets me? The only reason that I focused on reading him was to find out if he thought I was a good kisser; that's how gullible I was!"

"Easy, now" Shalimar responded in her best calming tone, "we've all made mistakes in being too trusting at one time or another. But we can't just stop trusting, if we do, then we hand the bad guys a victory over us."

Emma finished her hot chocolate and sat on the couch with her head tilted back, waiting for the last drop to form on the edge of the cup and drop onto her tongue. "Wanna bet?" she replied with a challenging smirk. "But seriously, how could you deal with a creep like Zack and then put your heart right back on the line with Mark?"

Shalimar smiled, "It is WAY too early in the morning for philosophy! Or horror…" she added, dropping the book on the table beside the couch. "I think that hot chocolate goes best with a relaxing backrub."

Emma sighed, "Do I look that pathetic?"

"Yes," replied Shalimar, "now, to your room young lady!"

Shalimar took a detour to her own room for her favorite massage oil and gave Emma enough time to change from her sweats to her pajamas and then tapped on the door.

"Who is it?" asked Emma innocently.

Shalimar opened the door just enough to slip through it. "Yeah, like you can't tell who's at your door!" she chided. She smiled as she notice that Emma was wearing a lacey pink baby doll nightie. ~So, Emma does have a pink frilly side, she just keeps it hidden~

"You don't really have to do this," Emma started to object. Her objection was cut short as Shalimar took her in a grappling hold and flipped her face down onto her bed.

"Hey! So far this isn't very relaxing!" Emma complained as soon as she got her breath back.

"We'll get to that part. Do you mind my pushing your nightie up so that I don't get lotion all over it?" In response to Emma's nod, she pushed the soft flannel material up until it was around her neck, exposing her bare back and ass. Shalimar smiled to herself as she realized that someone who didn't even where underwear under slacks, certainly wouldn't wear them to bed.

Rubbing some of the lotion on her hands, Shalimar took a position with her knees on each side of Emma's thighs and placed her hands gently on the woman's lower back. After a brief moment of tension, Emma relaxed and Shalimar started long, shallow strokes from the level of her tailbone up to her shoulders.

Emma had felt her body tense when Shalimar had first touched her, but was able to relax as the older woman patiently waited for her to get used to the contact. As she felt the soft strokes of the warm hands on her back, she was also aware of the cool silk of Shalimar's pajama bottoms as they rubbed against her thighs with each stroke.

With each stroke, Shalimar started just a centimeter lower until she was including most of Emma's ass in each stroke. ~ The glutious maximus is a large muscle. There's no way that someone can be totally relaxed without relaxing that area. ~ Shalimar thought to herself, trying not to let her mind stay focused on how much she enjoyed the feel of the firm, tight muscles beneath her hands. With an unseen pout, Shalimar forced herself to pull away and re-adjusted her knees to the sides of Emma's hips so that she could work on her shoulders and arms.

Emma tried to remain tense as long as she could, but it was useless. She silently chided her body for doing what Shalimar asked it to do, instead of following her orders to remain rigid. Slowly, she felt muscle after muscle melt into jello. She noticed that Shalimar was getting lower than was proper, but it felt so good to relax and she felt nothing but the concern of a friend from the feral who had her in, what she realized, was a rather compromising position.

As Emma drifted on the edge of sleep, she felt Shalimar slip one arm around her waist and the other arm onto her shoulder. Then, in one smooth, effortless move, she was flipped over to a seated position, leaning back against the other woman. Surprised, Emma tensed up again, reaching out with her mind she encountered only gentle playfulness. Relaxing back against the older woman, she waited curiously to see where this was going.

Shalimar knew that she was taking a bit of a risk with the move and was pleased when Emma relaxed back against her without asking any questions. As Emma's head rested back against her chest, red hair mingled with blond in a fiery combination. Slowly, Shalimar resumed her massage by wrapping her arms around and stroking Emma's stomach, hips and rib cage. Hesitantly, she moved to the fronts of Emma's shoulders and slowly down toward the small, firm breasts. Sensing no reluctance on the other woman's part, Shalimar started moving toward those heavenly soft-looking mounds.

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door to the room and both women practically jumped out of their skins. Emma scrambled to pull the nightie back down and Shalimar jumped over to the chair near the bed before Emma replied in a slightly shaky voice, "Come on in, Adam."

"Oh, hi Shal," Adam said, acknowledging the other woman as he entered the room, "I was just gonna grab a snack and noticed the light on, everything okay?"

"Everything's fine, Adam. Shalimar and I were just, uh, sharing some experiences," Emma replied with only a slight stutter.

"Oh," said Adam as he moved back toward the door, "sorry to interrupt you two. Hey, if either of you ever want to 'share some experiences' with me, I'm here for you."

Emma clenched her jaw, straining to suppress the laughter that threatened to explode from her. Meanwhile, Shalimar was able to keep a straight face long enough to answer, "Thanks, Adam." The second that the door closed behind him, Emma buried her face into the mattress and pounded her fist into the pillow to keep from squealing out loud.

Emma's comment told Shalimar that the young psionic wasn't just blindly going along with her, she was willingly and knowingly accepting that direction. But now, the moment was broken and there was an awkward silence in the room as Shalimar was about to make some lame comment about getting some sleep.

Emma silently cursed Adam for his interruption. She had never been intimate with another woman, but everything felt so right. Shalimar had piqued her curiosity and, as much as the young woman hated to admit it, she really just wanted to be touched and held and comforted right now and there were few people in the world that she trusted as much as Shalimar. But, the moment had been broken, which meant that she wouldn't be able to justify it as just one thing leading to another, a definite choice would have to be made.

As Shalimar turned to leave, Emma reached a decision and stepped between her and the door. With a mischievous twinkle in her eyes, she placed her hands on Shalimar's shoulders and gently pushed her back toward the bed saying, "now, where were we?" As she gave Shalimar a final shove onto the bed, she suddenly felt herself being grabbed and twisted around. When she got her bearings, she realized that she was on her back, with her legs pinned, looking up at what the team lovingly referred to as Shalimar's 'Cheshire cat' smile.

"Uh, I'm pretty sure this ISN'T where we were before," Emma commented nervously as she made a half-hearted attempt to sit up.

"Nope," replied Shalimar, pushing her back onto the bed, "but this is where we are NOW." With that, she leaned forward and gently planted butterfly-soft kisses down the side of Emma's neck and slowly out along her collar bone before repeating the motion on the other side. She was rewarded with a slight shudder that would have been overlooked if not for her heightened senses.

As Shalimar continued planting the light kisses around Emma's neck, she slowly slid her hands under the nightie and up to the breasts that she had come so close to before. Her hands cupped perfectly over the small mounds and she felt the heat coming from them as the nipples hardened into tiny knots. She pulled away just long enough to slip the nightie back up around Emma's neck before descending on the first of the tight buttons that seemed to be pleading to her.

She started by gently licking all around it and then placed her mouth over the area so that she could suck it and use her tongue to tease it.

Emma had to clench her jaw to keep from gasping as she felt the soft, moist tongue teasing her nipple even harder. Then, as the warm mouth closed around her breast and Shalimar started sucking and massaging it with her tongue, she felt the tension drain out of it. As that warm mouth pulled away, Emma could almost sense her breast reaching up, trying to follow that source of pleasure. She was about to complain when she was distracted by the attention that was being paid to the other side.

After she had massaged the tension out of the second nipple, Shalimar resumed the soft kisses down Emma's sternum and across her belly button. As she moved down from there, she felt the woman beneath her start to tense. ~okay, not quite ready for that yet~ Shalimar acknowledged in her mind before sliding almost snake-like off the end of the bed. There she knelt and took one of Emma's feet and started carefully massaging the heel, the arch and then around each of the toes.

Emma tried to force her body to relax, but she knew that the feral's keen senses had picked it up. She wanted to explain that she was just a little nervous, but Shalimar had moved off the bed before she had a chance. Although she was surprised when she felt her foot being softly massaged, she again allowed her body to relax. If there had been any shadow of mistrust lurking in a dark corner of her soul, it had been banished by the older woman's willingness to wait until she was ready.

Shalimar sensed the change in Emma, ~ah, now you're ready, I thought you'd come around~ she thought as she finished the second foot and placed it back on the bed. Crawling up onto the bed between the legs, Shalimar slowly ran her hands under Emma's knees and up along the outside until they slid down along the top of her hips, giving her the leverage and support that she needed.

The feral woman hesitated as her nostrils drank in the heady perfumed oils that threatened to spill out of the crevasse in front of her. Bending her head down, she formed a scoop with her tongue and pushed the musty juice up the beautiful valley to the sensitive clit. As her tongue lightly brushed it, she heard Emma moan out loud. ~hmm, I'll need to be careful or she'll come before I've finished~ she noted to herself before driving her tongue into the fountain of juices. Once she had feasted on Emma's supply of ambrosia, she finally moved up to that small spot at the head of the valley.

Emma felt the tension build as Shalimar's tongue dove into her over and over. Finally, she felt her moving back up toward that spot that would drive her over the cliff. Instinctually, she reached down and wove her fingers into the blond locks that cascaded around her thighs. She wasn't going to let Shalimar go anywhere until she had finished what she had started.

As Shalimar's tongue started flicking over the tiny mound, she could feel the shockwaves radiating through the woman below her with all the force of one of Brennan's electrical coils. She withdrew one hand and slid it down the front of her pajamas to where her own clit was jealously waiting. Suddenly, Emma arched her hips up, almost smothering her in the steaming hot crotch and let go of her head, clenching fistfuls of bedspread instead. Shalimar had only a moment to be glad that it wasn't fistfuls of her hair before she exploded in her own waves of ecstasy.

When her mind cleared, she felt the sweaty limp body beneath her and heard the pounding of both of their hearts. She slid off the bed and then rolled Emma to one side and then the other to free the covers on the bed. Emma blushed and snickered at her body's refusal to move on its own as Shalimar pulled the covers up, tucking her in like a small child.

"Now," Shalimar said with a smile, "go to sleep." And with that she bent over and placed one final soft kiss on Emma's forehead before turning off the light and heading back to her own bedroom.

The End

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