1. Chapter 1 by DX Machina
2. Chapter 2 by DX Machina
3. Chapter 3 by DX Machina
4. Chapter 4 by DX Machina
5. Chapter 5 by DX Machina
Less Than Nothing, Part One
By D.X. Machina
Seth wasn’t sure why he was pouring his heart out to the beautiful woman at the bar.
Oh, she was beautiful, and paying attention to him; that would probably be enough explanation for most. But Seth wasn’t chatting her up, he was unburdening himself. Unless the olive-skinned beauty smiling sympathetically at him was a sucker for hard-luck stories, this wasn’t going to lead to anything.
Seth didn’t want it to lead to anything.
He wanted Kari back, wanted her back with a desperate ache that nothing could fill. Four months had gone by since they’d broken their engagement - she’d broken their engagement. And it only got more raw and sensitive with each passing minute alone. He needed her, like he needed food, like he needed water, like he needed air.
“I’m nothing without her,” he said to the beauty at the bar. “She’s a…she’s like my goddess. There’s no meaning for me in a world without her.”
“But Kari isn’t gone from this world,” said Aphrodite, evenly. “She’s still in it. It’s just your life that she’s gone from. And there could be another who would fill that nameless gnawing.”
But Seth wasn’t listening to her. “I’d give anything to be with her. She could treat me like anything, like dirt. She could ignore me completely. Just as long as I could be with her.”
“You don’t mean that,” said Aphrodite, sipping her retsina and frowning. “You might be able to endure her cruelty. But her neglect would drive you mad.”
“I’m mad already.”
Aphrodite smiled sadly, and asked the bartender for a glass of water. She then reached into her purse, and took out a small flask, and dribbled in about three drops of liquid. She slid the glass over to Seth, and said, “Drink.”
“What’s this?” he asked, looking carefully at the glass.
“One month of her benign neglect. One month of being in her presence, and her not noting your existence one way or another. One month of heaven, or one month of hell.”
Seth looked at the glass quizzically. “What kind of game is this?”
“At the end, if it is more heaven than hell, I will give you the rest of this - enough for a lifetime of her benign neglect. If it is more hell than heaven, I will do you the mercy of not giving it to you. Of course, there will be a price for that, but we can discuss that when the time comes.”
Seth stared at the glass. “You’re saying if I drink this, Kari will take me back?”
“No,” said Aphrodite. “I’m saying if you drink that, you will be with her, and she will not send you away. But that is not the same thing.”
“It’s close enough,” said Seth, grabbing the glass and throwing it back. It tasted vaguely of anise. He closed his eyes, and felt the warmth spread through his body. “I don’t know why I did that,” he said. “I mean, I just met you. And what you’re saying is impossible. But I believe…”
He didn’t complete his sentence. Instead, he toppled over, and fell fast asleep.
* * *
Seth awoke in darkness, lying cockeyed on a soft, curving plain. He struggled to his elbows, and looked around, but he couldn’t make out much in the dim light that filled…well, it wasn’t a room. Not exactly. Indeed, he wasn’t sure what it was. It was familiar, and yet it was radically different from anywhere he’d ever been.
He rose, and felt his feet sink slightly into the ground. It felt like fabric of some sort. Kneeling back down, he felt it, and then, his nose close to the ground, he caught her scent.
Her scent. Kari’s scent. The ground was lousy with it. It was light, not overpowering. And it was masked somewhat by the scent of lavender. But it was there, as sure as he was alive.
She was around. Somewhere. “Kari?” he called, quietly at first, then a bit louder. “Kari, are you there?”
As if in answer, his world was suddenly rocked by an earthquake the likes of which he had never felt. He fell to the ground and flew sideways, colliding with an upsweeping wall. He rolled a good forty feet back to level ground, where he lay on his back, gasping for air.
“What the hell was that?” he said, and then he screamed.
She was there, filling his sky, mammoth beyond reason. She was a goddess, a nude Venus, staring bare-chested into his pathetic little world. He had ached for her, and there she was, her breasts swaying slightly as she bent down, sweeping a gargantuan paw into the realm, grasping acres of green fabric and still more acres of blue. She carried them off into the heavens, and he cursed, because he remained on the ground.
“Please, Kari! Don’t leave me here!” he called, and though she had started to turn away, she looked thoughtful, as if his prayer had reached her. She turned back, and dropped the twin blue moons back into the drawer, and then her hand reached over him, and pulled the sides of his little world together, and they raced skyward.
The mountain that was her left breast approached its nipple taller than he, even in its soft, relaxed state. He braced himself as the land that had been his ground became a wall, one that forced him into her areola. He felt her skin against his, the rough bumps of flesh rubbing against him, and he realized for the first time that he was naked.
His world was motion. She dipped and turned and moved and dipped again, but he didn’t care. Through the insanity and the difficulty, he was up against her. Occasionally, she would bend, and her breasts would temporarily recede just a bit, enough to remind him that the mountain was her. But then it would come back, and he could kiss her and caress her and tell her he loved her. She, his goddess, his world.
* * *
Kari exited the shower, cursing her inability to wake up in the morning. She was running late, and unless she hurried, she was going to be late for the morning staff meeting. She quickly pulled a comb through her curly auburn locks, using a blow drier to knock down the worst of the dampness; she knew from experience if she didn’t, her hair would be a frizzed-out disaster by the time she got to the office. She headed into the bedroom, tossed the towel onto the bed, and pulled open her underwear drawer, grabbing a mismatched set of panties and a bra. Then, remembering her evening plans, she replaced the bra with one that did match, and made the most of her assets. She grabbed her white blouse out of the closet, one that showed a moderate amount of cleavage when she was wearing this particular bra, and threw on her black pantsuit. She slid feet into pumps, and slipped her watch and a necklace on while she walked to the car. She checked the time: quarter-to. She might just make it after all.
As she slipped behind the wheel, she had a sudden flash of Seth gently chiding her about her perpetual lateness. It had been in the middle of a rather intense night of sex, not long before she decided that she couldn’t marry him.
He’d taken it hard. It had been, what, three months now? Four? She hadn’t been counting. When was it, April? Yeah, April, that’s right.
She felt badly about how it ended, and she hoped he was starting to get over her. He was a good man, and she loved him. She just wasn’t in love with him. And she knew it wasn’t fair to him or to her to pretend she was.
As she pulled out of her townhome, she wondered idly why she was thinking of Seth that morning. Probably a little guilt, she thought. But she pushed all those thoughts out of the way as she drove, focusing instead on the meeting ahead.
* * *
Seth spent hours kissing her flesh tenderly before he decided to venture further.
He had worked himself around to her cleavage, where he got a good look at her chin, and the ruby pendant necklace he’d bought her long ago. He was touched to see her still wearing it; he hoped it meant something, but even if it didn’t, he was glad she still could wear it.
He wasn’t sure why he clambered up her skin to the necklace, slipping three times before he got enough traction to get there. He thought maybe he could get to her ear. Maybe if he got right up next to her eardrum, she would hear him, know he was there. Maybe if she knew what he was willing to give up to be with her…
The links of the chain were easy enough to ascend, each slightly larger than him, allowing easy purchase as he moved up to his ultimate goal, her beautiful curly red locks, which lay haphazardly against her left shoulder. Well, against her right shoulder too, but he was heading for the left one.
When he reached her neck, he kissed her tenderly before grasping the hair. He had kissed this neck a thousand times; she loved to be kissed here. He then began climbing the curly spiral of a strand of hair, gunning for her ear, hoping he could make her know she was there.
He wasn’t counting on the motion of her hair. Humans move their heads constantly, and Kari was no exception. She was constantly turning and talking and typing and turning, and her hair swung dozens of feet on the slightest motion. When she finally got up and headed for god-knows-where, it was all Seth could do to hang on with the motion of her bouncing follicles.
He soon saw they were in a restroom. He could tell from the mirror a quarter-mile distant, the one reflecting her mountainous visage. He couldn’t pick himself out from it, which terrified him a bit, but not as much as the thing that appeared in her right hand moments later.
She brought it across her head, and a thousand skyscraper-sized protrusions rent the world, pulling the strand of hair he was on almost perpendicular. He screamed, “No, Kari!” as a massive pillar dealt him a glancing blow, causing him to fall.
He grabbed for something, anything to brace his fall, and actually grabbed something - hair that had pulled free, wrapped into the teeth of the hairbrush. But this was just a place for punishment as she assaulted her hair all over the place. He lost his grip as she finished, falling down again, until he was barely able to grab on to a red proscenium.
Her fingernail, dear God, was the size of a parking lot, and he was holding on by the barest of imperfections. He wasn’t even sure which finger he was on, and he didn’t care - he knew this was the end, especially when the world went whipping by at a million miles per hour.
But then, somehow, some way, his luck turned. The finger was suddenly grasping and pulling and he lost his grip as the hands pulled downward, and he fell, but came to rest in a soft cushion. Her legs stretched up into the heavens, two immense pillars framing a reflecting white hemisphere, while a torrent of water raged above.
She was going to the bathroom, he realized, turning away, trying to give her some privacy. He tried to figure out where he was, but before he had time, there was the roar of the toilet flushing, and then his ground was shaking, and rising again. He rolled over to see her flesh approaching, to see her…Oh, God. Her.
* * *
Work was predictably boring, as it always was, but it was a routine sort of boring that she could live with. Kari did her job with aplomb, and took just a little pleasure in watching a few of her male coworkers fight the urge to look at her chest. She didn’t mind them looking, as long as they didn’t get too gross about it. There was a reasonable line between noticing someone was attractive and making them feel uncomfortable about it; she didn’t mind the former. It was when she could tell the men were going beyond noticing her and going on to what they would do to her if they could that she drew the line.
Her presentation had gone well, and the follow-up meeting had been relatively productive. She might just get a hold of the Binderman project after all. Which wasn’t exciting - but was decently good for her career path.
The only thing about the day that wasn’t going swimmingly was an occasional itch, one that had started on her left breast and had migrated into the valley of her cleavage not long after lunch. It had shown up other places throughout the day - her neck, her shoulder - but it would be there just for an instant, never even long enough for her to feel the need to itch it.
She ran a comb through her hair and primped just a little, used the restroom and headed out. She checked her watch: Five o’clock. She’d make it just fine.
* * *
He was in heaven.
He slid between the folds of skin, pushing himself upward while basking in her scent, her warmth, her wonderful, magnificent pussy. He could barely see in the dark, but he knew every inch of it, and he was able to traverse the labia and into her bush, grasping the steel-like beams that were her hair, licking and kissing and caressing her all the way toward his goal.
She swayed and moved, sat down and stood up, he was aware only in the dimmest sense. By the time he reached the hood that safeguarded her nub, he had come spontaneously once, and as he slid around and licked the thing, bigger than he - and felt it, heard it grow - he was convinced that if there was nothing more than this, nothing more than this to his life - it was all he wanted. He wished he could tell Aphrodite now to complete the deal, to seal it - but he had patience. A month of this, and then a lifetime. A lifetime of her as his world, his goddess.
He made love to her clit, cuddled with it, treated it as the extension of her that it was. And he was rewarded. For some time later - he knew not how long - light streamed in. And he was greeted by her finger, which worked its way in and joined him, sliding him over her clit and in through the gates he had been too tiny to open on his own. He slid deep within her, and came back out and over and up and over and in and out and over and then, she burst, and the tsunami of her ardor overcame him, washed him out onto her bed.
He lay there a long time, after she had gotten up to go about her business. He closed his eyes and thanked the merciful and wise Aphrodite, for giving him to his goddess for her pleasure. He was in heaven, and he could not see how it could ever be otherwise.
* * *
It had been a wonderful evening.
She hadn’t been sure when Julia had set her up on a blind date, especially since it hadn’t been that long since she and Seth had parted. But Julia had insisted that Paul was cute and handsome, and besides, she needed to get back out there before inertia took hold. So she’d gone to meet him for coffee after work, figuring it might be good for a lark, and maybe for a brief, torrid affair. A girl has needs, after all, and while her vibrator was a quality appliance, there was something nice about coupling with someone, instead of something.
Paul was a little shorter than she would have deemed perfect, a little plainer, maybe a bit soft around the middle - but she was a bit soft around the middle, and she wasn’t posing for Cosmo on a regular basis. But he was attractive enough, and charming and friendly and deep. And while she’d been musing before the date about whether she’d want to bed down with him, she had no doubt by the end of the date. Her clit damn near ached by the time they parted with a brief kiss - and a plan to meet for dinner at her place two days later.
When she got home, she stripped and rubbed one off, quickly. It didn’t take long - she was already halfway home. She’d never felt this way about anyone, and she was damn sure going to be ready when he came over. She was going to tackle Paul but good.
BAM. BAM. BAM.
He endured each blast with grimaced joy.
BAM. BAM. BAM.
He had discovered that he was invulnerable quite by accident two days ago, when she had come back to bed and sat down directly atop him, forcing him down into the mattress with such force that he could not possibly have survived it. He felt like his whole body would break. And yet as he waited, terrified, afraid of impending death, he soon found that despite the fact that he could neither move nor breathe, he was not dying. He was in pain. But he was not dying.
BAM. BAM. BAM.
When she finally rose, he felt magnificent, as the absence of pain always does. And he felt very happy about what had happened. Because while it had been painful, it had showed him that there was no part of his goddess that he needed to fear. She could not kill him.
BAM. BAM. BAM.
Which is why he had been unafraid to be standing on her foot when she pulled on that sock. He had always loved her feet, and he had worked himself onto the webbing between her second and third toes as she walked around her house, doing the normal Saturday chores, turning on a vacuum that sounded rather like a Boeing 757 three inches away from his eardrum and dusting and straightening, putting her house to rights. He had planned to jump off when she took her morning shower, but instead, she'd put on the sock.
BAM. BAM. BAM.
He wasn't sure where they were now. He had lost his grip and fallen under the ball of her foot, taking the full weight of her body with each step. There were times when there had been breaks in the action, when her foot merely pushed him into the ground, rather than rising and falling and crushing him mercilessly. But now the footfalls came rapidly, as if she was running. He wasn't sure if it was his imagination or not -- maybe it was. He didn't worry about it. Though he was in agony, he was also in ecstasy, as the sweat of her feet soaked the sock and himself, baptizing him in her perspiration. He breathed it in, drank it in. He sacrificed his pain to her, in payment for his pleasure.
BAM. BAM. BAM.
* * *
Kari pushed herself hard. Just a few more minutes of hard running and she'd be done for the day. It didn't help that Julia kept talking to her, forcing her to answer.
"So he's coming to your house tonight?"
"Yeah," huffed Kari, "gonna make him some spaghetti, pour him some wine, jump his bones. You know."
"Well! That must have been some date. You haven't made plans to put out on a second date since Seth."
"Never done it," Kari said, grimacing as the treadmill raised itself a bit. "Seth was the third date. Coulda been second, but was best to wait a week."
"Why?"
"Aunt Flo visited. Anyhow, thanks for setting us up. I think he's a keeper."
"No problem. Makes me jealous that I got married."
"Right," said Kari, finally breathing easier as the machine entered cooldown mode. "Phew. Why do I do this to myself?"
"So you can have the opportunity to seduce unsuspecting guys like Paul."
"Right," said Kari. "Almost makes me wish I stayed with Seth. I could have skipped the workouts."
"You don't mean that," said Julia reproachfully. "You're doing better than that."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Well, I just meant -- I mean, he wasn't exactly gorgeous."
"Look," Kari said, "I don't need you to bash Seth to make me feel better. He wasn't a bad guy, and it wasn't even the attraction -- he was plenty cute. I just...it wasn't the right fit. I can't explain it well. It's just...when I looked at him, I didn't see someone I thought I'd grow old with. He never treated me badly. I just thought we both could do better."
"Well, from what I hear he doesn't agree with that assessment," said Julia, sliding off her elliptical machine.
"Why? What have you heard?"
"Oh, Dave said he was pretty broken up still. Hoping you'd come to your senses."
Kari sighed, as her machine came to a halt. "He'll get over it," she said, trying to convince herself as much as Julia. "It had to be a shock. But really...in my heart, I don't think we were meant to be together. Not forever."
"You're over it though, right?"
"Right," said Kari, picking up her water bottle. "You can't marry someone you don't love. And I didn't love Seth, not really."
"I know. And I think Paul will be very glad of that in about five hours. So, should we take a sauna?"
Kari frowned. "No, I think I'm just gonna hit the showers. I should get home. I have a bit more cleaning to do."
"Gotta get clean before you get dirty," said Julia, impishly. "I doubt Paul will complain."
"Oh, I know," said Kari, "I'll keep him preoccupied."
* * *
Seth was a bit surprised when the sock was removed, but was more surprised to be pulled away from the foot with it. He was tossed end-over-end into a deep canyon, which he surmised must be a work-out bag of some sort. No wonder he'd been getting pounded -- she was back on the treadmill, trying to get back in shape.
He shook himself loose from the sock, and fell onto a blue field of arches slightly bigger than he. Kari's left hand reached into the bag and grabbed it up, forcing Seth to grasp one lest he fall into oblivion.
They went some distance, then stopped, as Kari deposited whatever he was on onto a huge protrusion. I'm on a towel, realized Seth, as he caught sight of a very nude Kari holding a bottle of bath gel, walking back into the shower area.
There wasn't much for Seth to do but hang out, so hang he did, watching the shower area. It was a dazzling sight. Every minute or so, a beautiful woman would walk through, either naked on the way to the showers, or naked on the way from them. The sight of three-quarter mile beauties was unreal, like he was hanging out in a shower on Mt. Olympus. But he smiled as a brown-skinned beauty paused and bent down, giving him a spectacular view. It was completely appropriate, that thought. These women were more than women -- they were goddesses. He wondered if he could be happy with another goddess as he was with Kari. He doubted it. But they all occupied his new pantheon. And he was sure to be reverent to the parade of pulchritude.
Soon enough, his Ladyship returned, naked and gleaming, covered in beads of water that he could swim in. She grabbed the towel as if she had no idea a tiny man was clinging to it, and Seth got a grand tour of her nude flesh, sailing past her ass, her breasts, her pussy, her thighs, even her lovely face, before she wrapped the towel around her, shielding him from light, landing him on the inside, just at the small of her back.
He looked for a good place to alight to, knowing that the towel was destined to go back into the bag. He tried to ease himself downard toward her freshly-washed ass crack. He thought it would be an interesting place to alight. Perhaps not the grandest of his goddess' parts, and still, a part of her, and thus worthy of respect.
It wasn't an easy climb, as she moved through the locker room. He thought he heard a blow drier at some point, but eventually, he could see that the tile had been replaced by carpet, and as he felt the towel start to loosen, he through caution to the wind and dropped, landing on the north cliff face of her right butt cheek.
He scurried over toward his destination, looking to see if there was perhaps some downy hair he could use to cling to until her panties were safely in place. As he reached his destination, she bent over, and it was all he could do to keep from falling. Indeed, he slid, finally grabbing hold of her anus; had he missed, he would have fallen to the floor.
But fortune favored him. She was getting a pair of panties on. Except something was odd with the acres of fabric coming up toward him. Oh, not their pinkish color -- that was to be expected. But the shape was...oh, no.
The thong underwear snapped into place, sealing him under her backside. It held him fast, giving him little room to maneuver. He was pinned between rectum and taint, unsure of where to go next. When jeans were slipped on not too much later, he was in grim darkness.
* * *
Kari dried herself off, and pulled on her change of clothes. She'd finish primping at home, but she'd packed some unmentionables, as well as her better shoes, in her gym bag.
She ran over the conversation that she'd had with Julia about Seth. She really did feel terrible about it. She hadn't wanted to hurt him -- really, she would have found it easier to have just had the switch flip, and had her love him like she wanted to.
But love doesn't work that way. She wasn't sure that it would work out with Paul, frankly, though she was going to enjoy herself that night. But you can't just love someone because you want to. She hoped someday, Seth would understand and forgive her, and let her go.
For a second, she thought about giving him a call -- but she put the thought out of her head. No, if he was pining, it would only re-open old wounds. Better to let it lie. He'd get over it. Time heals all wounds. There's probably another trite saying, she thought, that says it.
She sighed, and then smiled. She had moved on. And while she felt a bit bad about Seth feeling bad, the truth was that she had a very fun evening planned. And that was what she wanted to focus on.
* * *
It had been an ordeal, but he had come through it okay.
Actually, his position had been a blessing when she was driving. He was in a reasonably safe position, with her ass sitting all around him, but not crushing him. He was able to get himself situated finally, going further up her back to the top of her thong, where he waited patiently for a chance to move on to more interesting scenery.
It was a few hours before he got his chance. She was cooking, he thought -- he smelled something like cooking, anyhow, and it was more pleasant than the two bouts of flatulence he'd been exposed to. At one point, she bent over, and then back up, and he found himself falling but a short distance to her kitchen table.
She had it set for two, he noticed. Maybe Julia was coming over to watch movies.
He watched Kari walk out of the room, and he investigated the giant tableau. there wasn't any food on the table yet, just enormous plates and a couple...wine glasses? Kari only drank wine on special occasions. That was odd. But not a big deal. He found it odd that he wasn't hungry, given that it had been a couple of days since he'd eaten or drank anything that didn't come from Kari herself. But it made an odd sort of sense; he received his sustanence from his goddess, of course. Man does not live by bread alone.
Still, he thought if the opportunity presented itself, he might eat some food, just for drill. It was good not to forget what life as a human was like.
Kari returned presently, having changed into a gorgeous black and pink dress, one he always had loved. He sighed as he regarded her visage from miles away, approaching quickly. Surely, there was not a more beautiful thing in the universe.
She entered the kitchen, then came into the room a short moment later bearing a pot of some sort. She quickly dished spaghetti onto the two plates, and then pouring a bit of sauce on.
Seth was mesmerized by her perfect breasts, which peeked out deliciously as she bent over the table. The doorbell rang, and she cursed just a little. Then she did something that caused Seth's heart to sink.
She lit the two towering candles on the table. And then, shaking out the matches, she turned and headed for the door.
Candles. She wouldn't light candles for Julia.
But a few minutes later, his goddess returned, a god in tow. "No," Seth stammered, as they walked in, holding hands. "No, no, please, no, Kari."
But Kari delivered only the promised benign neglect. She did not send Seth away. Instead, she handed a bottle of wine to the giant, and he poured into glasses, before setting the bottle on the table a bare quarter-inch from Seth.
The wind gust blew him high into the air, before he floated down onto a massive field of red. He was on a plate, one that he saw to his dismay belonged to the god. He dove and weaved as the monster picked at his spaghetti and tried to pick up his woman.
"Aphrodite, please, don't let him eat me," he said. "If I must be eaten, let it be by Kari."
But Aphrodite didn't answer, and it was all he could do to keep plowing through the tomatoes and spices as tremendous lengths of rope were pulled out from underneath him.
* * *
Kari dished the spaghetti just as the doorbell rang. Quickly, she lit the candles on the table, and headed for the door, her summer dress bouncing against her knee. She paused at the door and straightened herself, chuckling that she felt as nervous as she had the night she lost her virginity back in high school. Breathing, she opened the door.
"Hi," said Paul, smiling a bit weakly, showing his own nervousness and a bouquet of flowers. "Wow. You look great."
"Those are always good words to lead with," said Kari grinning. "Come on in."
They chit-chatted their way to the kitchen, Kari asking if Paul had trouble finding the place, Paul complementing the Ansel Adams print Kari had in her living room, the usual stuff. Kari guided Paul to the table, and said, "I thought simple was better, if that's okay with you. Do you like spaghetti?"
"Love it," said Paul.
"Good. I've got wine -- it's a white, I hope you don't mind, I just don't like red wine."
"All I know about wine is that it has something to do with grapes," Paul said, chuckling. "White wine is fine by me."
They filled up their glasses and started to talk, slurping spaghetti and sipping wine and ignoring everything but each other.
* * *
He had been lucky, but his luck had run out. He tried to avoid it as the last of the spaghetti coiled around the fork, but his foot had been caught in a rivulet in one of the noodles, and he was quickly spun into a tightly-wound coil. The man's teeth approached, and he bit down, causing Seth to scream out in anguish.
Fortunately, a bit of spaghetti slid against the man's teeth. Seth came to a spot where he could get between incisors, and he wedged himself into the gums, praying he would survive.
The suction of him swallowing was intense, but not as intense as when the man spoke, saying simply, "I CAN CLEAN UP."
There was a pause, and then the man said, "SO, WHAT DO YOU HAVE PLANNED FOR THE REST OF OUR EVENING?"
And then suddenly, the lips parted, and Seth saw another row of massive teeth, another pair of lips, and an enormous pink tongue.
And then, all was one.
Seth was ripped out of his hiding place by his former fianceė's tongue, and slapped against the tongue of the god. After an infinity of time, they broke, and Seth left with Kari's mouth, which spoke words that broke his heart.
* * *
"I can clean up," said Paul, as they finished.
"We'll leave the dishes for later, but thanks," said Kari.
"So," said Paul, innocently, "what do you have planned for us for the rest of the evening?"
In answer, Kari walked over to him and gave him a lingering kiss. Breaking after a few moments, she said, "I haven't showed you my whole house. There are other rooms. The loft, the laundry room...the bedroom...."
"Well," said Paul, smiling, "I think that sounds like something I'd like to see."
Kari offered him her hand, and led him off to see the rest of her house. Or at least part of it.
They were one day shy of their one month anniversary. She was having her period, or she would have done much more with Paul, but she’d at least sent him home happy, and she’d told him encouragingly that the next night she’d be ready for no-holds-barred action again. Paul, for his part, would have been fine going that night, but Kari was sensitive about it, and he wasn’t going to belabor it, not when he was at least getting himself jerked off by a beautiful girl with a deft touch. Besides, he had just the faintest tickle in his cock afterward, one that felt pleasant. He wasn’t sure exactly what Kari had done, but it was nice.
Paul drifted off to sleep pleasantly relaxed, and awoke the next day and headed off to the gym no less cheerful.
* * *
The man giving Paul his pleasant sensation was not so pleased.
Seth was dumbfounded as to how he had come to be here. Well…he supposed he knew, mechanically, how he’d ended up here. How he’d ended up on her finger last night as she was preparing to give Paul a hand job, how he’d been pressed over Paul’s piss slit as he came, rubbed against it until he’d spat out his ardor, and then pushed just inside. How Paul had grown flaccid after that, and how the suction had pulled him deeper in, and held him fast.
He’d been peed over twice, both times coughing and sputtering and praying just to be washed out into the abyss. But both times he stayed put. He didn’t think physics allowed for this, but he knew he wasn’t here due to physics, but the goddess’ curse. Aphrodite had punished him but good.
The day passed more interminably than most; at least the day he’d fallen onto Kari’s tampon, only to be stuffed deep within her, to be covered by her detritus…it had been her detritus, after all. This was worse than any of the pain inflicted upon him by Kari in the long and interminable time since he’d entered this hell.
He tried to think what his giant host was doing — at least, he did so after what he figured was a morning run, when the world was moving too much to think. Most of the day seemed boring, a great deal of resting with the occasional getting up to go do something, at least twice to piss. Seth survived both, unfortunately. Twice the world around him hardened and deformed as Paul sprouted wood; Seth told himself Paul was probably going to throw himself at a hot girl in his office, but in actuality, both times were due to subtle emails that Kari had sent, letting him know that this would be an evening they could take full advantage of.
In truth, even as Seth hoped that he would be at ground zero of Paul cheating on Kari, he knew he wouldn’t be. He’d become the proverbial fly on the wall (because flea in the bush wasn’t a proverb), and he’d seen enough to know something he hadn’t known before.
Kari loved Paul. More than Kari had ever loved him.
And Paul — he was as in love with Kari as she was with him. But both were calm and easy in love. Seth had thought, in the second week they were together, that Paul was taking Kari for granted. That he wasn’t trying to learn everything about her, that he wasn’t always worried about her first. The three-night run that Paul had been away working on a project — Seth had thought Kari would leave him, and quick.
But it hadn’t happened, and Seth knew why; Paul didn’t need Kari to complete him, and Kari didn’t want to complete him. They complemented each other, and did so well. But they weren’t the missing pieces in each other’s lives, because nothing was missing. Both were complete as-is.
Seth had been willing to give up everything to be with Kari, because he needed her to complete him. But she didn’t need him to complete her, not at all. And how could he make her be the missing piece to his soul?
Wasn’t he responsible for his own soul?
The world around him stiffened again. He wondered if Paul was checking out a hot barista or something. But a few soft collisions and then a huge, crushing squeeze let him know that more interesting things were going on.
* * *
Kari groaned in pleasure as Paul buried himself inside her. She felt his member moving within her, unwrapped, finally — she and he had decided to trust in her birth control, and she preferred the feeling without a condom in the way.
So did he, tell the truth.
He was shuddering in pleasure, sliding himself back and forth. It wouldn’t be enough to get her off — like most women, she wasn’t built that way — but it was just the opening act in a long night. Paul had been a fast learner with her rabbit pearl, and he was not the kind of guy who got intimidated when a woman brought in a little extra assistance.
He went a long time, longer than usual, before he finally came. She pulled him close as he blew his load deep within her. They lay together like that, him on top of her, her kissing his cheek, him kissing hers.
“It took you a while. Am I losing my luster?”
“Hardly,” he grinned, kissing her again. “It’s the weirdest thing…ever since yesterday, it’s like I’ve had a little cork inside my cock. Nothing bad, mind you, just a feeling. It was a little bit of pushing before it went tonight. But it felt good. And now it’s gone. Weird, huh?”
“No weirder than you usually are — hwoop! There you go.”
“So, you want me to go to work with the appliances?”
“Mmm…just let me enjoy the glow. Orgasms aren’t everything, you know.”
“They aren’t? You mean you get something other than that from sex? Damn, women have all the luck.”
* * *
Seth came to as the ground around him began to shake uncontrollably.
He’d lost consciousness as he’d been blown with a stream of sperm deep into Kari, and he had awoken just in time to see a pink behemoth pushing its way back in. This one was not human, however; Kari was evidently using her vibrator to finish herself off.
He’d hated that thing; it always made him feel like less of a man when she turned to it. She said that he wasn’t unique in not being able to get her off through sex, but he’d always thought she was patronizing him. He’d seen different in the past few weeks.
Kari’s juices began flowing as the vibrator did its job. Soon enough, the soft, moist ground was inundated by a flood, which swept sperm and Seth out behind the withdrawing vibrator. He ended up in a puddle on the bed, between Kari’s milky thighs.
After a while, the bed’s occupants got up; Seth wasn’t sure why, until a bra and panties were tossed onto the bed. Aha, they were having a quickie before going out, Seth realized.
And he realized something else; he was going to go out with them.
He’d been between his ex-girlfriend’s thighs just then, been rinsed out and into the shadow of her swollen vagina. And yes, Paul’s presence had detracted from it, but Seth knew that there was a greater reason why he didn’t enjoy the experience.
He realized, finally, that he was over her. The pain that had been his companion at the start of the month was gone. She wasn’t his anymore, if she ever was.
It was time to let her go.
And so he resolved that he’d go out with Kari and Paul, wherever they were headed. And along the way, he’d leave her, for good. He didn’t know what this would do to his promise to Aprhodite — and he didn’t care. He thought he was beyond a month of torment anyhow, that he’d been consigned to hell already. And he was okay with that — he’d been the fool who’d imagined himself happy with Kari’s neglect.
He chose his position intentionally, the top of the bra strap; he worked his way over her shoulder to the collar of her turquoise dress, pulled himself up atop it and grabbed her hair, and pulled himself up carefully into her ear. He knew she wouldn’t hear him — he’d tried this before, to no avail. But he wanted to say this as much for himself as for her.
By the time Kari and Paul were in the car, he had made it. He stood just inside the entrance to her ear canal, and he said it quietly.
“Kari…I’m sorry,” he said. “I thought that you were being cruel, that you didn’t see how I felt about you. But I think you did. I was too crazy about you; I didn’t love you, I loved how you made me feel. I thought I could make you happy by being what you wanted me to be, but I didn’t ever realize you wanted me to be me — and stop needing you.
“This guy Paul — I’ve seen him inside and out, and…I think he’s a good guy. More important, you think he’s a good guy. So I’m not gonna argue, Kari. I want you to be happy. So…I’m going to go now. I’m going to let you live your own life the way you want to live it. And I wish you the best.”
He thought about bending down to kiss the ground, and thought better of it. Instead, he backed up to the edge of the ear canal, and considered.
He had found to his chagrin that he didn’t die easily. But he didn’t want to live life as a flea in a giant world anymore. He didn’t know how many days had passed and didn’t care; a world with magic like this was a world with an afterlife. And so as Kari got out of the car, and he saw the parking lot miles below, he made a fateful decision.
He jumped.
He arced lazily toward the ground as she strode away, her hand around Paul’s waist. He smiled as he drifted down below the hem of her skirt, watching as she strode miles away with a few steps, as the ground rushed up toward him. He closed his eyes, and braced for impact.
“Hey buddy! You okay? That was a nasty fall.”
Seth opened his eyes; he wasn’t dead. That was something. He looked around, and saw a world that was not immense, one that was indeed quite ordinary, a bar that he’d been drinking at, a month and a lifetime ago.
“Yeah, just…fell off my stool,” he said, rolling over, as he saw a pair of beautiful, olive-skinned legs standing and straightening said stool.
Aphrodite looked down upon him beatifically, and lend him a hand. “Seth, here, let me help you up.”
“What was that you put in his drink, miss? Buddy, you know she spiked that water?”
Seth laughed. “It was just a little…uh…flavoring. Don’t worry, she wasn’t trying to drug me,” he said, arching an eyebrow at the goddess.
“Oky doke. Well, you don’t seem drugged, and you don’t even seem particularly drunk, but watch yourself — you need a cab, or to go to the doctor, you let me know.”
“We will,” said Aphrodite, plunking a twenty down on the bar.
The barkeep smiled at that, palmed the tip and wandered away.
“So,” said the goddess, “was it all you expected?”
“It was…interesting,” said Seth. “I don’t want the rest of that.”
“I didn’t think you would,” Aphrodite said, returning her flask to her purse. “Most don’t. A few do…but they are too far gone from the world, and it is a blessing to them to give them an alternative to death.”
“So,” said Seth, rubbing his head, “you said I’d owe you if I didn’t take the rest, right?”
“Indeed,” said Aphrodite. “You have to go say hello to the next couple that walks through that door,” she said, pointing to the entryway that was even at that moment opening to reveal a pretty woman in a turquoise dress, with curly auburn hair, laughing with a blandly handsome man who was holding the door for her.
“You’re kidding.”
“It was easy to say it to her when you knew she couldn’t answer, wasn’t it?”
He smiled, ruefully, at the goddess. “All right,” he said. He started to put his money on the bar, but she shook her head, and dropped two more twenties.
“My treat,” she said.
He saw Kari and Paul take a table at the edge of the bar. “So…tell me this,” he said, as he got up. “Is there someone else for me out there?”
“Do you want there to be?”
Seth smiled. “Yeah,” he said. “Someday.”
“Well then, there’s your answer, no?”
The goddess smiled and stood, and walked silently out of the bar, drawing a fair number of stares, but not, Seth noted, from Paul.
Seth stretched, and headed for the exit by way of the table. He was vectoring in such a way that she would see him. He would break the ice if she didn’t….
“Seth?” she said, half-shocked.
“Huh? Oh, hey Kari! How are you?”
“Good, good! This is Paul, my, uh…”
Seth smiled, “Your ‘uh?’ Is that what they’re calling dates these days? Seth, nice to meet you,” he said, reaching out his hand.
Paul smiled a wary smile, and grabbed it back. “Likewise. So, uh, is this your ex-fiancė, dear?”
“Yep,” Seth said, “but don’t let that worry you. She had some good reasons to dump me. I’m not going to interrupt your date. But I’m glad to see you’re doing well, getting back out there.”
“Seth, I…”
“I’m dead serious, Kari,” Seth said, and she realized to her surprise that he was. “It’s good.”
“Thanks,” she said. “So, uh….”
“See you around, right?” Seth grinned. “Have a fun night you two. Good to meet you, Paul. ‘Night, Kari.”
“Good night,” Kari said, as she watched her ex head out of the bar.
“He seems like a decent guy,” said Paul.
“He is,” said Kari, and for a minute she felt just a bit hopeful, for both of them. She knew she’d done the right thing for herself, but maybe, just maybe, it had been right for Seth, too.
“So,” she said, apropos of nothing, “I had this really weird dream last night, and it involved you.”
“Really,” said Paul.
“Yeah. You were two inches tall.”
“Wait — two inches?”
“Like I said, weird. And you were…um…’spelunking.’”
“Well,” said Paul, chuckling. “What else would a two inch tall guy do if they were with you?”
Kari smiled, and continued on with her story, knowing it would probably result in them skipping the movie and heading back to her place, or maybe Paul’s place. Indeed, she was counting on it.