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Amber's 69 First Dates

-

Part 13 - The Graduate

---

by

Dissident Love

Copyright

August 2015, More Or Less

All characters contained herein are

unfortunately fictional. Any resemblance

to any actual persons, living or dead,

means you're probably on a lot of drugs

and can't sue me anyways.

_ _

Special dedications to the Plunderbunny.

All glory to the Plunderbunny.

Dear MySecureDiary App,

_ _

Well... that was a hell of a year.

_ _

It's hard to believe that it was just last September

I was having my very first after-school cram session (hee hee),

and now... and now I'm actually having to turn people

down who are asking me out simply because there's not

enough days in the week and not enough weeks

to go around (and, you know, sometimes I actually DO

have homework to do, despite what my parents think.)

_ _

I've been turning down more and more the closer we get

to the end of the year, though, because... I'm not really

sure why. The web show is going kinda ridiculous right now.

I still do the same silly stuff I always do, and I have

a special guest almost every week (usually just someone

from school), but now I've gone from 5000 subscribers and

100 live viewers to 25,000 subscribers and 1000 live viewers.

It's a little... scary.

_ _

Mom and Dad keep asking me what I want to do with my life.

I'm graduating in a week, and so far this year I've gone through

four or five career goals and I still don't think I've picked one.

I don't want to tell them "web show hostess" because, I mean,

really... this isn't something I can keep doing forever. I know

most people just watch because I'm a hyper and talk about

my junk all the time, but that's not where I see myself in

ten years. Or twenty. Or... you get the idea.

---

"You could hire writers," Cindy suggested. "All of those talk shows have teams of writers, just entire rooms stuffed full of liberal arts dorks, and they don't let 'em out until they have enough jokes for the night."

"'Liberal arts dorks'?" Amber echoed, one eyebrow raised behind her flopped-over ear.

"What, is that not PC anymore? Liberal arts geeks?"

Amber sighed. "I don't think it's an issue of having enough topical punchlines, Cin," the kitteh grumped, burrowing deeper into the overstuffed microfibre couch, arms and legs cradling the beachball-sized bulge in her yoga pants.. "I just mean, I don't think there's much more I can DO as an 'entertainer'... and yeah, there was quotes around that word."

"I could hear them," the buxom fox nodded. "And there's definitely a lot more you could do-"

"WITHOUT taking my clothes off!"

Cindy grimaced. "FINE, ruin all my great suggestions, then!"

"I WILL!"

"GOOD!"

"FINE!"

The girls were sprawled around Cindy's spacious basement, now that the cheerleader was allowed to have friends over again. There was still evidence visible around the wide open room of Amber's last visit, ranging from cracked wall panelling to missing ceiling tiles to a handwritten sign hanging by the stairs that read 'No Hanky-Panky!' courtesy of Mr. Shasta himself. On the freshly-repaired television, super-powered teenagers were engaged in hilarious misunderstandings and exaggerated pratfalls to the sounds of canned laughter, but neither feline nor vulpine was really paying attention.

"But-"

"No, Cindy."

"I wasn't going to say what you think I was going to say!"

"Wanna put money on it?"

"Just shut the fuck up, sweetie, and listen for... ten seconds."

"... fine."

Cindy inhaled, though for once it wasn't for the amusement of the crowd (even if Amber was very quietly amused by the sight). "Do you feel as though you will always be averse to the nudity? I can totally understand how you feel right now, absolutely, no question, babe, but in a couple years when you're out on your own in the big world it might actually be a viable and respectable option, because there's nothing WRONG with your body and it's yours to do with what you want! Your flesh, your rules!" She was almost gasping by the end, her phenomenal lung capacity pushed to the limit.

... nine... ten seconds. Wow. "I..." she started.

And that seemed to also be where she stopped, her muzzle hanging open as she struggled to form a response.

"Oh, come on, you must have THOUGHT about it," Cindy added, prodding Amber with her footpaw from the other end of the couch. This was partly to make sure that Amber was actually still there, as the excessively-endowed fox couldn't actually see her friend over the landscape of her school sweater.

"Yeah, I've... thought about it..." Amber murmured. "I try not to think about it too much, though."

"Why?"

"Because I don't want to think about what's going to have happened in my life between now and then where taking my clothes off is my best option to make a living."

"Point," Cindy granted, "but that's assuming that being naked is somehow BAD. I'm almost positive you actually enjoy it when your clothes come off."

"Yeah, but-" Amber replied, but was promptly cut off.

"And there weren't any complaints when you removed MY clothes. With your teeth, I might add."

"OK, but-" Amber sputtered, blushing.

"And when you're on cam wearing a sports bra and a leotard that's so tight your viewers can actually take your pulse, it's not like EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THOSE VIEWERS is not imagining EXACTLY what you'd look like without it."

"Maybe, I guess, but-" Amber started, blinking when there was no follow-up commentary from the other side of the couch. "Sorry. I thought you were going to keep talk-"

"This isn't the prudish world of your parents," Cindy continued, clearly enjoying herself. "You saw Mr. Carmichael's installation at the museum, you read Winger's book. Hell, that what's-hir-face from the city, Yelena?"

"Jelena."

"Whatever, it's pronounced the same. Shi seemed pretty put-together."

Amber's eyes rolled back slightly as she recalled just how well put-together the skunk escort had been. "Yeah..."

"So don't just give up on the show because you're afraid of where it MIGHT take you. If you like what you're doing now, keep it up, but maybe talk to your fans a little more. Check out the Amber Forum. They've got plenty of suggestions."

The kitteh stiffened, struggling to sit up against the smothering weight of her hermness. "There's an Amber Forum?!"

Cindy clucked her tongue. "You really need to pay more attention to your channel..."

---

That Friday found Amber grateful that the bulk of the schoolyear's work had already been completed, graded and returned, as the bulk of her mental faculties were now focused on her smartphone and the Happy Hyper Herm Hounds discussion board.

She had seen the term 'hounds' passed around the channel's chat room before, sometimes with hashtags, and when she'd asked what it meant they'd replied that it was simply a term for her fans. Amber was reminded once again that the etymology of that word was 'fanatic', and the more she browsed the more her anxiety grew.

The largest subforum was 'General HHHH Discussion', which wasn't so bad. Mostly there were topics about her individual shows, what people liked (Amber, tight clothes, growing, product reviews), what people disliked (Amber wearing clothes, Amber wearing loose clothes, Amber typing in the channel when she could just talk, how expensive channel tokens were), and what she should do more (tighter clothes, less clothes, more special guests). Really, it was just like listening to a hundred Cindys.

The next largest subforum was the 'HHHH Pics And Clips', which was equal parts flattering and creepy. Amber was reasonably sure she could piece together all of the individual screencaps and completely recreate an entire episode, and there were hundreds of short clips and little animated image files of the perky feline walking, bouncing, groping, growing...

"Amber?"

"WHAT?!"

A hush fell over the classroom and Amber's normally erect ear drooped, mirroring her more floppy canid ear. She raised her head with dreadful anticipation until she locked eyes with the stern, imposing figure of Miss Kasa. Amber pondered trying to casually slip her phone into her desk, but there was no way the remarkably tall squirrel hadn't noticed it.

"Am I distracting you?" the teacher asked in clipped tones.

"No, Miss Kasa, I'm sorry, I was... just... uhm... sorry."

Miss Kasa sighed, shaking hir head ruefully. "I know there's only two weeks to go, but is it REALLY too much to ask to get through one period without texting or twatting or whatever it is you kids do these days?"

Amber swallowed and hastily tucked the phone into her desk, feeling her Kevlar- restrained nethers pressing hard into the ancient aluminum frame. "Yes, Miss Kasa. I mean, no. It's not too much to... to ask... sorry."

There was snickering from somewhere in the back of the class, which didn't help her mood. She tried to focus on compound polynomials and their real-world application with nonnegative coefficients, but there was only so much space in her brain, and as usual it was hardly even a fair contest. She folded her paws against her belly and stared off into space, thinking about the show, the forum and her future.

Two weeks to go. That single thought sizzled just below the surface of Circe High's student body, particularly the senior and graduating class. Almost universally, attention spans were slipping away and it was only the most stringent or oblivious teachers that tried to pretend otherwise. There were several final exams to go, but pop quizzes and homework assignments had largely tapered off. There was no sense in fighting a losing uphill battle against the unstoppable onslaught of the teenaged lust for freedom.

Between Miss Kasa's math class and the cafeteria Amber stopped off at her locker to swap out her books. Most of the graffiti had been eliminated and the thrill of vandalizing her locker had mostly worn off, but there was always something new each day. On this particular day she just managed to catch a small group of furres finish stuffing something through the vents in her locker door before scampering off. She pondered shouting at them, but really, it would just draw more attention, as though that were even possible anymore.

"I predict... more invitations to the bush party," she chuckled under her breath, giving them enough time to escape. The bottom of her backpack was lined with enough such invitations that she could probably make a life-size paper mache model of herself, and more poured in every day.

She opened the locker door carefully but it didn't stop the small avalanche of hand-written proposals from scattering around her feet. She sighed and made a big show of kneeling, legs splayed wide around her sac, to gather them up. "I'll be there," she said with mild but charmed exasperation. "Jeez."

It was apparently an annual tradition, one that Amber had only heard rumors of until the week before, despite the fact that Cindy had been part of the super-secret planning committee for months. Sure, Amber had groused to herself, this is the ONE part of her life where she can keep a frickin' secret. Amber herself seemed to be one of the last seniors to hear about it, but she'd found out in a rather spectacular fashion with nearly a hundred invitations in her locker that Monday morning and probably another hundred since then.

Amber moved as swiftly as she dared through the cafeteria, loading up her tray with whatever happened to catch her eye, and scurried towards the distant corner tables. When she felt safe enough to detach her mind from her body once more she buried her nose in her smartphone and resumed perusing a fan forum dedicated to, of all people, herself.

"This is nuts," she mumbled around alternating mouthfuls of cafeteria-grade bran-muffin-pops, tofu-chicken-nuggets and spinach-pizza-rolls.

Perhaps more confusing and potentially alarming than the Gallery subforum was the 'Happy Hyper Stories' section, where fans of the show recalled the moment they discovered they were 'into' hypers, or herms, or both. There were dozens of tales of seeing one on the street that put Amber in mind of breathless wild animal encounters, and far more posts that recounted the very day, and sometimes the very hour, that they were first spied online.

'I was in Freeport on a spring break holiday with my family,' recounted forum user Fill-Me-Up-Buttercup. 'Spent most of the week trying to get away from them of course. Who goes to Freeport to go to museums and craft fairs? WTF mom. Anyways we managed to spend most of the second to last day on the beach which was hella fun after all that snow back home. There was crazy storms on the horizon, and all the boats were coming in, but it just made the light on the beach almost magical, dark and golden. I was getting a slushee from the stand by the boardwalk when I saw hir! Shi was just strolling by, tall and sexy laquine grrl, auburn fur with flecks and speckles of black, talking on hir cell phone, but shi looked at me and saw me staring, and when shi actually smiled I thought I was going to die. My only regret is shi wasn't wearing a bathing suit, just regular stretchy pants, but I didn't think they even made them in hir size (now I know better!) Not to be too crude, but I'm pretty sure shi was more than fifty percent bulge...'

While it only magnified the sense that her life was a fishbowl, every word and action and thought and straining article of clothing being scrutinized and objectified and dissected by her audience, it was also perversely comforting. As strange as she thought her life was, as disturbing and troubling as her pubescent dating life seemed to be, there was an entire world out there that recognized her, accepted her, and even idolized her.

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times," she mumbled, dropping a few crumbs onto her screen. "Huh. That sounds pretty good. I should use that on my next show..."

---

"Hi Dad! School was good! Going upstairs! Call me for dinner! Love you!"

The hurried speech was punctuated by the slamming of the front door, the unceremonious dropping of the backpack by the base of the stairs, the thunderous pitter-patter of a hyper's paws carrying her to the second floor, and the slamming of a particular bedroom door.

Liam O'Malley, sitting in his heavily-reinforced recliner by the living room fireplace, blinked and shrugged. "Hi," he replied softly. "How was school? Oh you know, my day was fine. Nice talking to you."

In the limited teenaged sanctuary of her bedroom, Amber dropped heavily down into her own ultra-strong chair and flicked on her computer. Her legs were twitching and only partially from the day's stresses and unmonitored caffeine consumption. She started wriggling out of her skirt, pausing only to satisfy her superstitious fears and turn her webcam to face the wall. "No free shows," she grunted, even though she knew it wasn't even on. Something about its dead black doll's eye gave her the creeps.

She pushed back from her desk when she was finally down to her restraints, her skirt and stockings and purely decorative over-panties tossed roughly in the direction of her closet. From the way the indestructible fabric was pushing out against her inner thighs awkwardly, and the unnerving rhythmic throbbing of the great sheath-shaped bulge down the front, she knew she was going to need the extra space.

Snap-fthwip.

_ _

"Ohhhhhhhhh, ye gods, that's better," she moaned, sagging with relief against the upholstery as her body fully asserted its natural dominance once more. The chair's titanium pneumatics creaked alarmingly, but she knew they could handle far more weight than this. The previous week's show had proven that...

She stretched out her legs, suddenly-obscured toes wiggling as their tremendous burden was lifted. The walk home had been maddeningly interminable, her mind flooded with conflicting thoughts while her body was awash with dangerous chemicals and unstoppably expanding flesh,and the sudden freedom brought all those fancies flooding back.

"Eeurrgh, don't use the word 'flooding'," she chuckled to herself, readjusting her rump and giving her sheath some idle scritches as it filled out with unobstructed circulation. In moments it was as thick and heavy as one of Cindy's thighs, and suddenly thinking about Cindy's thighs caused it to bulge out a little more. "Hey! You behave down there!"

The overendowed kitteh purred contentedly as the underside of her sac reached the ground, settling down with muffled sloshes and gurgles, and she was able to breathe without having to tense her abdominals. "I dunno how the real hypers do this all day," she sighed, stretching her arms high overhead and twisting around, feeling her stressed core muscles slowly relaxing. Jade was this big twenty-four-seven, but shi also had the body of a crossfit champion. Swimming all day was good for the body, Amber supposed...

The computer beeped and hummed as her autostarts finished autostarting, and Amber straightened up with as much haste as her endowments would allow. Her fingers flexed and flashed across the keyboard, several layers of anti-parental security parting before her and guiding her browser to the Forum (which she now capitalized in her head). She'd registered her username that morning, but had refrained from posting as her smartphone typing skills were still decidedly subpar.

Welcome, TheOneTrueAmber, the screen said.

Amber grinned. "Darn right."

She'd been of two minds where to post first. One of the subforums had a few threads of people insisting that they'd invited her to the forum, and she felt bad for apparently not noticing any of those invitations in her show chat. Then again, there was a certain perverse appeal to posting in the 'Happy Hyper Stories' section and recounting the first time she noticed, to put it bluntly, herself.

That was going to be quite the story, she mused, and opened up her word processor instead to type it all out. She didn't want to click 'Submit' on a post and have it time her out or anything.

'The first time I really noticed a hyper herm, I was just a kitten. We were at the indoor swimming pool, since there was a foot of snow on the ground, and I was relaxing my butt in the hot tub. It seems I could NEVER be warm enough, even back then! Anyways...'

_ _

- - - - -

_ _

Amber's fingers were starting to ache from her relentless keyboard marathon when she finally decided she'd crossed the metaphorical finish line. So many times she'd pondered how she would describe the 'Hot Tub Incident', as she and her parents had come to call that rather embarrassing day, and so far she'd only told Cindy and Luis about it. On both occasions she'd rushed through all of the more sensual details, trying to frame it more as an amusing anecdote than the first nascent stirrings of a young hyper-herm's biological and romantic urges.

Typing it out, though, had given her the time to savor the memories, expand upon her anxieties and curiosities and suspicions, and explore the Thesaurus feature of her word processor. After more than an hour of furious tap-tap-tapping she'd ended up with more than four thousand words of over-dramatic prose, as well as a severe case of dry mouth and flop sweat.

The kitteh glanced down and winced. "Figures," she smirked, tracing her overused paws across her sheath and murring softly as every delicate touch triggered a spasm of overstretched tissue. Spending so much time dwelling on fond memories always had a distinctly visceral physical response, and her oversized bulges were now in the range of what she would describe as 'Hazardous Materials, Exit Area Immediately'.

She clicked the Save icon and leaned back in her seat, wondering if she should take care of matters before she posted her textwall to the forum. There would probably be a lot of immediate replies, and she'd want to be on hand to manage the situation. She knew all too well just how fast some rumours could get out of control online.

Amber had copied her post to the clipboard and was clicking 'Post New Topic' when there was a sharp knock at her door. "Amber!" her mother called. "Supper time! We made lasagna!"

The hyper-kitteh froze, mouse trembling beneath her right paw, a vanishingly small portion of her sac trembling beneath her left. When had her mother gotten home? She hadn't heard a thing! How long had she been typing? Lasagna, she thought, suddenly paralyzed with fear.They only make lasagna when they want to Talk.

_ _

She swallowed, habitually clicked the Save icon once more, and then stood up. When she didn't grunt with effort she sighed and grimaced... because that meant the majority of her hermness was still resting on the floor.

"This is going to be fun," she mumbled, both ears drooping as she searched for her support hose.

Walking slowly and with excruciating care into the dining room, she did her best to ignore the pointedly innocent stares of her parents. It was almost ten minutes after her mother's first call for supper, and Amber had spent most of that time carefully navigating her way down to the main floor. It was no easy feat when you not only couldn't see your feet, but when you were several inches wider than the space allowed between the wall and the bannister.

"Smells great!" she grinned, trying to act casual. It was an easier performance to pull off when she was telling the truth, and the dish did smell incredible. Both dishes, she noticed with a mixture of pride and chagrin. There was one enormous cheese-covered casserole in the centre of the table, two small squares already sliced out and steaming on her parents' plates.

There was an even larger casserole in front of Amber's chair, with a fork and knife to either side. She'd long ago learned to stop apologizing for what her hyper-metabolism sometimes required, but it was still a little silly when she could not only out-eat her folks, but sometimes finish off their leftovers after.

Support hose creaking under the strain, she eased herself into her seat and inched herself forwards, just barely managing to stuff everything beneath the heavy oak table. "Sorry I took so long," she added, when the silence seemed like it was going to drive her mad. "I was... you know. Typing. Homework."

Amber was well used to walking around the house with a minimal amount of clothing from the waist down, and especially on weekends it was common to see her at such sizes. However, supper time on a weeknight was a different matter. "Everything all right?" Liam rumbled, the immense doberman taking a tiny bite of his meal.

"Yup!"

"You seemed... distracted when you came home."

"Nope!"

"You sur-"

"Fine!" Amber kept her eyes low and shoveled a small mountain of food into her mouth, wincing from the heat but willing to do what it took to end that line of questioning. "Gmmmm mmph fmmmd, mmmm!"

"Thank you, sweetie," Sierra smiled, nibbling at her own. "I had them in the freezer for, you know, some night when I just didn't feel like cooking."

Or when you felt like it was time for another Amber's A Hyper Milestone discussion, she grunted to herself. Wait, how did I grunt that in my head? I can grunt thoughts?

_ _

"What homework?"

"Fmmwhat?" Amber replied, managing a short breath between bites. Oh, gods damn, this is tasty, though... hopefully it'll be worth the brain bleach that's coming.

_ _

"What homework were you working on? I thought it was close enough to the end of the year that there wasn't anything major that was due. Just studying and revision for exams. That's what the school newsletter said, anyways."

The hyper kitteh narrowed her eyes. Sometimes I forget just what he DOES for a living. "It's not like a report or anything. It's just... creative writing. We don't have to do it, but we're allowed." Hah! That's all technically correct! Try and catch me in that, Mr. Lie Detector!

_ _

Her father just smiled and nodded. "Excellent! I hope it's something school-appropriate... you were wearing different clothes when you got home."

DAMMIT.

_ _

"Dear, leave her alone," her mother protested gently, reaching over to stroke the back of Amber's paw. "I know you like torturing her, but she's not a kitten anymore. You can just talk to her, hyper to hyper."

"MOM!"

"What? It's true!"

"Yeah, but..."

"Dear, leave her alone," her father chided gently, reaching over to stroke the back of Amber's paw. "I know you like torturing her..."

Amber looked back and forth between her parents, who wore identical expressions of beatific innocence, but she could see them cracking around the edges. "You two are doing this on purpose, aren't you," she glowered.

"No, sweetie," her mother replied, squeaking at the end. "We're just..."

"... concerned..." her father managed, before his flews started to jiggle uncontrollably.

Amber watched in slack-jawed horror as both her parents started laughing, clinging to eachother for support. "I hate you all," she muttered, cramming several more forkfuls into her muzzle. "Seriously."

"Oh, sweetie, you know we love you," her mother managed when she was able to breathe properly again. "You just seem so SERIOUS these days. Especially on Fridays."

Amber blinked. "Fridays? No, I don't."

"You do! Fridays, and Saturdays when we ever actually see you, when you deign to come out of your room and grace anyone with your presence."

Don't look left and right, that's a sign of guilt, she thought. Don't alter your breathing. Pause to consider her words, but don't act TOO surprised or confused. Or too casual. Too casual is the worst. "It's been a long year-"

"Your web show is important, but it just seems to be adding to your stress."

And whatever you do, don't... what? What did you say? Wait, I'm still thinking this. Amber finished chewing, swallowed carefully, and asked in a small voice, "Web show?"

"Are you a terrible liar," Liam gruffed, not unkindly.

Amber focused on her plate, gazing with laser-like intensity at the tines of her fork. She marvelled at the way the cheese strands glistened on the nickel-plated steel. I could happily spend the rest of my life staring at this fork, if it means I don't need to continue this conversation.

_ _

"You don't need to talk to us about EVERYTHING you do on the show, sweetie, but please don't insult us by pretending we'd never find out about it."

This is the prettiest cheese I've ever seen in my life.

_ _

"I mean, your name was on the posters for the last school dance, and the HHHH! logo was actually in the corner of your most recent newsletter."

Amber blinked. "I didn't bring home a newsletter."

"I know, I had to go on the school website. The internet is just FULL of information!" her mother grinned.

The silence stretched out, except for the sound of Liam's chewing. Nothing short of dinner actually being on fire would interrupt his meal time, and Amber knew of at least one occasion where even that didn't stop him.

"Have you-"

"Just a few episodes," Sienna replied casually. "I just... we just wanted to make sure that you weren't being, ah... taken advantage of."

Amber's ear perked. "By?"

"Oh, you know... the internet. Sort of... all of it. We're parents! It's our job to over-react, worry and expect the worst!" The older kitteh waved her fork around menacingly, stabbing at the vague evils of the world. "And we're really, really good at it!"

The hyper teen's blush deepened beneath her fur, and she wished she had any appetite left. More lasagna would keep her from asking questions she was powerless to resist. "So you saw... me..."

"Grow, dear. Yes." Sierra seemed a little too animated by the conversation, while Amber's father was examining his meal nearly as intently as Amber herself. "It's a perfectly natural occurrence, sweetie! Especially if you've got your father's genes."

"DEAR!"

"MOM!"

"And you handled yourself in a very mature way, from what I could see, and I'm glad to see your channel still has an 'All Ages' rating! If only because, you know, you're technically still in high school, and I just think that's a rather inappropriate grey area, but in a couple weeks you'll be a college grrl, and... and then..."

Amber and Liam shared an expression of pained exasperation. Neither one of them really wanted to be there for this, but they both knew they had their part to play. "And you want to make sure your favorite daughter isn't going to devolve into a life of degenerate pornography."

There are certain immutable rules in life. When someone bends over and rips their pants, the object of their affections will be there to witness it. When you gun the engine and lay a patch of rubber through an unexpected yellow light, there will be a police officer there to witness it. And, perhaps most famously, when discussing sex with your parents, you will have an embarrassing physical response for entirely unrelated reasons. This final rule was enacted by the ever-watchful narrative referees in the form of her support hose voiding their warranty and ripping fully up one side, the sudden lowering of her centre of gravity shoving her legs roughly apart and slamming her knees into the table's legs. Plates and cutlery rattled for several seconds while Amber struggled to keep her rump centered on her seat.

"That was... a coincidence," she mewled, whiskers twitching.

"Of course it was," her mother nodded, trying to keep her face expressionless. "Did... something happen at school today? Usually you're not breaking the furniture until Saturday morning..."

"MOM! No! I... I just... well..."

Amber was shocked to discover that on some level, which she had been burying beneath lasagna and energy drinks, she really and truly did want to tell her parents about her other life. She wanted them to know what she was up to, and understand it, and be accepting of it. The thought of hiding something this big from the only two people who had been there for her right from the beginning had been loathsome, but she'd been unprepared to broach the topic herself.

But now, as always, her mother arrived just in time to callously shatter any pretenses and illusions.

"You see, Amber has... I mean, I have a... fan forum..."

---

"And you told them EVERYTHING?!"

Amber winced and held the phone away from her floppy but still feline-sensitive ear. "Not, like, one hundred percent everything but, you know, at least in the mid-nineties. They-"

"I can't believe your mom watches your show! Holy fuck, I'd just about DIE if my mom saw what I do on webcam!"

"She doesn't watch it all the time, just some of the early episodes, and... wait, what? What do you do on webcam?!"

"What? Nothing! Sometimes I Skype with guys, you know. It's not like I have a show or anything, Ms. Celebrity!"

"I'm not a celebrity," Amber demurred, licking nervously at her whiskers. "I just have a... mildly profitable almost-R-rated web show which... HEY, no changing the subject! What do you do on webcam?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?"

"Yes, I would!"

"Oooo, are you sure?" Cindy asked, her voice becoming almost unsettlingly interested. "OK, turn on your computer, and make sure your door is locked. And, I dunno, you might want to get that numbing lotion, I don't want you trashing ANOTHER room..."

Amber wasn't sure if she should be aroused or disgusted. For the sake of their friendship, and local real estate values, she settled on the latter. "Eurgh, Cindy, no. I... you... not tonight, ok?"

"OH, COME ON! It's nothing you haven't seen before! Hell, you had your tongue inside-"

"WHOA! NOT TONIGHT!" Amber winced, sinking her claws into the base of her sheath in an effort to keep it from rising to the occasion. She lay sprawled out on her bed, legs all but invisible beneath her sac, her phone pressed to one cheek and her sheath to the other, hugging it as she had once hugged her collection of oversized teddy bears. "Look, I have to start my show in a few minutes, and I'm already big enough!"

"'Big enough'? That doesn't sound like the Amber I know."

The hyper kitteh dragged a paw across a hermness that was now significantly larger than the entire rest of her body, and she was still very much soft. "If you watch my show tonight, you'll see what I mean."

"Awww, you big quitter! Come on, if the idea of me naked at your beck and call doesn't do it for you, what about one of your many boi toys in waiting? That cute little hoss in Remedial Art really has his heart set on you, and you know ponies have those tight little show-jumping buns-"

Amber shuddered, a wave of warmth spreading through her loins and adding quite a bit of weight to the velvety column of flesh that was already pressing down quite hard on her chest. "You are the worst person in the world, and I'll see you tomorrow at five to go to the bush party, ok?" she exclaimed, sitting up and shifting the burden of her sheath to rest atop her acutely swollen testes. "I need to go find SOMETHING to fit over my junk for the show, and try to do something to get your boobs out of my head."

"You can try, but you'll fail," Cindy cooed. "They are all-powerful."

"Yeah, you're not a narcissist at ALL."

"I think my grandparents are from France..."

"Oh, shut up. I love you."

"Bitch. Love you, too."

With her Mondo Madam five-XL support hose out of commission, Amber very carefully opened up a package of Grrl Plus six-XL that were on standby in her nightstand, making sure not to mar or wrinkle any of the labels. It was about time to do another product endorsement, she figured, although in the case of Mondo Madam it was going to be rather unfortunately worded.

She dragged herself over to the computer desk, double-checked the time, and then fired up her show's auto-start sequence. Familiar techno beats (inexpensively supplied by a DJ fan of hers) filled the room as she wriggled into the brand-new jet-black pair of hyper-herm leggings, with the camera very purposefully positioned to catch her from only the waist up.

When the final bleeps and thumps faded away, Amber smiled her biggest celebrity smile and angled the camera back down. "Good evening to everyone out there on the far ends of this series of tubes we call home! I'm Amber, and this is my hour. Although I guess it's been a two hour show for a while now, and sometimes three hours, so my whole Happy Hyper Herm Hour thing really isn't terribly accurate anymore... still, you can't mess with the logo."

Her paws moved with practiced rhythm, pulling up the chat window, the channel analytics, and of course the fan forum and her still-unposted post. "We've got a big show for you tonight. We've got some more Mondo Madam product reviews, which I know you all love hearing about, as well as a hilarious anecdote about me nearly wrecking the dining room table. I've got some more featured music from DJ Moonstar for your dancing pleasure, although I might just be doing a bit of a sit-down-boogie for that one. I've got some last-week-of-school hilarity to share with you, which will be the last time I ever say THAT..."

She copied, reloaded, pasted, and submitted her introduction, wondering only distantly if she should have run it past her parents. Ah, they were there, they know what happened. Heck, they were the ones who had to go find a blanket big enough to cover me! "But first... if any of you are members of the Happy Hyper Herm Hounds discussion board, there's a new thread that I think might pique your interest. And if anyone knows the moderators there, I definitely feel as though this should more than authorize the authenticity of my account. Just in case you're not signed up, though, pull up your chairs and get ready to get bored... it's Story Time With Amber."

"The first time I really NOTICED a hyper, I was just a kitten. Well, more than a kitten, not quite a teenager. We were at the pool, and I was trying to submerge myself in the hot tub, because, well, you all know how much I like to be warm. Anyways..."

The channel analytics continued to rise in fits and spurts (oh gods don't use those words!) but it looked like this was going to be a big show. She refreshed her thread on the forum and wasn't surprised to see that it already had 86 views. Another refresh and it was over 100. A moment later there were three replies, as well as a message in her inbox.

This may have been a bad idea, she mused, but whatever. They're my fans, and I'm going to make sure they get their money's worth!

_ _

---

"... and that brings us to probably one of the worst experiences of my life, and undoubtedly one of the scariest moments for anyone who has a show like mine."

The show had run long this night. She had killed most of her scheduled bits during the first hour, and the product review hadn't taken much longer. To listen to her fans, the review of the new tights should have gone on for several more hours, but Amber suspected they just wanted to keep the hyper-swollen kitteh's naughtier bits on camera. And could she blame them?

But then she'd just... started talking. Oh, she talked most of the time on her show, of course. That was the whole point. She rarely talked about anything beyond sanitized versions of her dates, however, in an effort to protect the privacy of the guilty parties, and she'd never expected the show's viewers to be that interested in anything else she had to say. After all, aside from a few rather unique traits, she knew she was just like any other teenager: a know-it-all know-nothing. Who wanted to listen to that?

Apparently, 3400 people, and a flood of cam tokens that Amber thought she might actually be able to buy a used car with.

So she'd started talking about what led her to making the show, and why she stood by her family-friendly rating. She mentioned more than once the most direct inspiration, which was the Plunderbust weekly web show on the same virtual network, which was a glorious mixture of geeky cartoon and video game reviews and slice-of-life anecdotes of what it was like to be a plus-sized bunny with a bustline that even Cindy had to admit was breathtaking. The Plunderbunny herself was as mild-mannered and soft-spoken as anyone Amber had ever met in real life, and she'd felt an immediate connection (even if it was only one-sided.)

After that, she'd meandered into her thoughts about the future. What was there for a hyper-herm to do in a world of normally-proportioned people? She had her interests, of course, but nothing screamed at her hard enough to be considered a calling, and certainly nothing she could see dumping four years of her young adult life into a degree for. Cindy had already been accepted to the Film Arts and Digital Communication program at MCU, in the City, whereas Amber was just on standby for any number of upgrade courses.

Throughout her expository ramblings, she also tried to mix things up visually for the audience, moving to her recliner, or curling up on the beanbag in the corner (which was, of course, nowhere near as large as her sac had become), or easing her bulk into bed. When she seemed in danger of falling asleep on camera, something she'd vowed never to repeat after the Snoring Incident (thank you for reminding me of that, Forum!), she simply sprawled out on the pink frilly throw rug in front of the closet, pulling the webcam with her and positioning it in the arms of her favorite teddy bear. She knew that it showed a little more cleavage than she was used to, with her black-clad nethers providing a vast backdrop, but she was proud of every inch and didn't want to sully her message with pointless bashfulness.

"Scary moments," she continued, heaving a sigh. "When you find out your parents... watch the show."

She paused, and sure enough there was a furious symphony of pings and dings from the computer as her chat room exploded. Amber laughed, positioning one paw artfully across her neckline to keep anything from slipping. "It wasn't that bad. I mean, my folks are pretty awesome. They've always known what I was, so they'd have to be pretty stupid to not notice what their only daughter was getting up to on a Friday night. And... I suppose they approve? Or my mom does, at the very least. My dad... I think he'd have been a lot happier if I hadn't ended up like-... like the way I did. But I also know he understands, more than most people ever could, and he's said more than once that if I can't be normal, then at least I need to absolutely own my weirdness. Fully and completely. And heavens help me, I guess I do."

She punctuated that remark by sliding one paw across the top curve of a leotard-clad sheath that couldn't fully fit into the camera frame. "To everyone who stuck around for the entire show tonight, thank you for enduring my pointless ramblings. Unfortunately, that means that you've earned only the privilege of being the first to find out that..."

Amber took a deep breath, steadying her nerves. She'd wanted to handle this with a subscriber post alert, but that seemed cowardly. Still, never say never, and never say forever. "... that my show is going to be going offline for a little while."

The explosion of chat room alerts nearly blew out her speakers, but she waited until they subsided to continue. "Just a little while! I've got a lot of summer coming up, and I... I don't know what's going to be happening at the end of it. I might be staying here, I might be going to college. I might be moving. I might be getting a job. I'm going to have more free time than I know what to do with, and... and I just feel like I need some time for myself."

Amber rolled over, at least as much as her pinned hips would allow, and brought her face right up close to the camera. "I'm not breaking up with you, audience," she grinned, sniffling once and blinking away a tear. On the nightstand her phone started ringing. Gods dammit, Cindy, we talked about this! "You've been there for me when I needed you, and I hope I've been there for you when you needed to know that you weren't alone. You know who you are. But... I need to focus on me. Not the me that has to plan for shows on Friday nights, not the me that frames every experience with how it should be edited for broadcast, and not the me that feels as though she can only confide in a little glowing square on the internet. I need to get away from all this..."

She sniffled again, but her grin never faltered. "And I just want you all to know that I'll be back in September, and the show will be bigger and better than ever before. I've learned so much doing this, half-assing it in my bedroom on a shoestring budget in between homework assignments. The Amber Show Version Two-Point-Oh will definitely be invading your personal space. I will be taking suggestions on the forum, and the channel page will stay up, even if it says 'Inactive' in the corner."

The computer continued to bleep and boink furiously, but she knew she had to be strong and make it quick. "Don't be angry with me, please," she murmured softly, sitting up and reaching for the keyboard, which had a considerably shorter cord and was still between her and the computer. "Just think of this as a temporary break. We've all become different people over the last few months, and it's not you, it's me." She winked and giggled. "Gosh, how many times have I heard that?"

"This is Amber, your very own neighborhood Happer Hyper Herm, signing off... and just remember, even though we'll be apart I'll always be thinking of you, and if anything happens to me I expect you all to avenge me. Peace!"

She flashed a V with her right paw and tickled the keyboard with her left, shutting down her broadcast and rolling DJ Moonstar's closing credits sequence.

Suddenly drained, she collapsed back onto the fuzzy throw rug and hugged herself, wriggling her toes against the underside of her sac. "Well... I guess that's that," she mumbled, her stomach growling with hunger even as her eyelids drooped. "Fuck me, I wish I was old enough to drink."

Her phone buzzed and jingled once again, and Amber groaned. "Dammit, Cindy, give me one minute! ONE MINUTE! You could SEE I was on the floor! I... crap, where are my feet?"

It was on the ninth ring that Amber managed to ease her overburdened rump into bed, snatching up the phone and thumbing the talk button. "What?" she snapped, swinging her legs as wide as she could manage to keep her circulation flowing.

"YOU CANCELLED THE SHOW?!"

"No! Weren't you listening? It's just on break!"

"IS THIS BECAUSE I'M MOVING TO THE CITY?!"

"What? No! What? Bloody hell, Cindy, not everything is about you."

"BUT YOU HAVE SO MANY FANS! AND SO MANY TOKENS! AND YOU JUST CRACKED THE TOP FIVE THOUSAND SHOWS!"

"Would you stop YELLING at me?! I'm way too sleepy and way too hungry for this. Just... look, we'll talk tomorrow, ok? I'm not breaking up with YOU."

"YOU BETTER NOT!" Cindy replied, somehow managing to yell and pout simultaneously. "YOU'VE GOT A GIFT AND I'M NOT ABOUT TO LET YOU WASTE IT!"

Amber's eyes narrowed. "My gift for talking, or my gift for fwoomping?"

"SEE YOU TOMORROW!" The phone clicked, and Cindy was once again speaking more with her silence than she ever managed to with her complete lack of an indoor voice.

Amber stared at the phone, wishing she could throttle it but not wanting to break another expensive piece of hardware so carelessly. Deep breaths, in and out, she thought. In with the good vibes, out with the bad. In and out. In. And. Out. In and out... oh, great, now I'm thinking about butts again. Dammit!

_ _

"Amber?"

"AUGH!" she cried out, trying to spin around to face the voice but only succeeding in tangling her arms in her blankets and kicking herself quite hard on the side of her swollen left seed-tank. "I... don't DO that!"

Her mother stood in the open doorway (fuck I KNOW I locked that this time... where do they keep finding keys?), wearing a baggy sweater and sweat pants, hands tucked behind her back. "Sorry, sweetie. I just thought... I heard you talking to Cindy, and... uhm... maybe I caught just the end of your show."

"Maybe?" Amber snarked, raking her fingers back through her blonde hair and trying to hide the rising blush. "You're not sure?"

"Oh, don't be like that. I just... well, I knew you were awake, and I just thought you might be hungry. And... maybe you wanted to talk." Sierra brought her paws around, one hand clutching a tupperware tub of lasagna, the other holding a small carton of ice cream. "That was a very brave thing you did tonight," the older feline added.

"Brave?" Amber asked, not taking her eyes off of the offered food. "Why so brave?"

Her mother moved cautiously into the room, holding the food out in front of her as a gesture of goodwill. "You're taking care of yourself, first and foremost. You're doing what you want to do, because you want to do it, and you're not letting the mob get their way."

"The... mob? Is this about Dad's job?"

Sierra blinked and snickered. "No, no no, not the mob, the MOB. The crowd. The audience. The throngs of horny boys and girls and, you know, everything in between, who want you to do two shows a week, three shows, four shows, five plus a photoset, and... well, you know. More fur."

"Yeah, they always wanted more fur. Or more skin. Or more both. More of_everything_, really."

"And you could have. Woulda gotten way more fans."

Amber nodded slowly, still staring at the food. "That's not why I did this."

"And that's why I love you," the older feline chuckled, slipping onto what little of the bed's surface remained. She wriggled her arm around Amber's shoulders and carefully juggled the food onto the hungry hyper's lap. "Now eat up. You know how cranky you get in the mornings when you're hungry AND all... you know... big."

It took all of Amber's inner strength to hug her mother back first before tearing into the food.

---

"You're wearing that?" Amber's father rumbled, his brows drawn together not in disapproval, exactly, but certainly with an over-abundance of parental concern. "Don't you think you'll be... chilly?"

"You do realize it's technically summer now, right? And there's going to be bonfires? See, 'bon' means 'good', and 'fire' means-"

"That's not entirely what I meant."

"Oh, I know, daddy. I know." Amber still preened slightly under her father's not-quite-disapproving glare. Her mother was leaning against the doorway to the kitchen, and the smile on her lips was... unsettling. "But it's the end of the year, and I'm sick and tired of wearing six layers of tights and stockings and leggings and skirts that you could use to keep a small car warm."

"Well, yes, but-"

"And those restraints. Don't get me wrong, they have been an absolute blessing on so many occasions, but I would like to dance with someone without a) bumping them and breaking their hip, or b) blowing out an eyeball from sheer hydrostatic pressure."

"I can understand that, I TRULY can, but there's going to be an awful lot of... exuberance tonight."

Amber blinked, muzzle working soundlessly for a moment. "OK, daddy? I love you, but... rewind that last sentence and just replay it in your head. I'll wait."

Sierra's eyes flicked back and forth between her long-suffering husband and her soon-to-be-long-suffering daughter. Liam had been every bit as hyper as his daughter when he was younger, with all of the wonderful positives and mortifying negatives that came with that title. Unsurprisingly, that was one of the reasons Sierra had fallen for him. Amber was only now reaching the crest of her pubescent years; her growth hadn't stopped, it had merely reached it's maximum velocity. There would be oh so much more kitteh to come, along with the responsibilities of being a busy adult.

So for now, she thought, why not let her wear the miniskirt?

"Liam..."

The hulking doberman raised his paws in defeat. "Don't take that tone of voice with me, woman, I know when I'm beat. I just... can't we hold onto her for a little longer?"

"I bite and claw," Amber grinned, flashing her pointiest bits to demonstrate. She bounced once, enjoying the feel of fuzzy fur against fuzzy fur, her sac resting heavily against her thighs. Of course, she wasn't giving a free peep show... the rich burgundy miniskirt was draped over a pair of lacy-trimmed pink panties that actually did cover Amber's impressive baseline proportions. It had taken close to an hour in the shower to bring herself back down to size, and she was almost positive she'd blacked out towards the end, but she wanted to actually be able to dance.

At first...

Her father grunted, but if you knew him well enough a chuckle could just be detected. "You've always been your own boss, sweetie," he murmured, heavy shoulders drooping. "And I know you need to go out there and make your own stupid decisions-"

"HEY!"

"-because that's the only way anyone really learns."

Amber's eyes narrowed. "This is starting to sound like some after school special, reverse psychology bullshit."

"LANGUAGE!" her mother cried, turning away to keep her smirk hidden.

"Yes, we don't use the P-word in this house," Liam spoke gravely.

"Me bad. Am sorry."

"That's better."

Amber bounced again, mostly just to annoy her father. "So you're fine with me wearing this to the bush party?"

"I think that was tacitly implied by my resigned posture and defeated jowls."

"Yeah," the hyper grinned, swaying and twisting her fingers together. "But I just wanna hear you say it."

"No."

"Aww, come on! Do it! Do it do it do it do it do it!"

"No."

"MOM! DAD'S BEING MEAN!"

Most of that Saturday had been spent with Amber making friends, or at least distant acquaintances, with the members of her forum. Of course, the forum wasn't actually hers... the moderators had been rather firm on that, though they were more than happy to give her special forum powers and a glowing rainbow-hued username once it had been confirmed she was the one and only Amber.

A more unexpected and closer-to-home result of her announced hiatus was the sheer number of phone calls she'd received, starting at the crack of dawn and lasting until well after her post-lunch shower break. Cindy made up almost a third of them, but still, it had been busy. Amber had had no idea that many people even KNEW her phone number! Talking to Jelena again had been what put the kitteh over the edge... she'd had to slam the phone down and sprint (or as much sprint as she could manage) for the shower.

After that, she'd been in a bit of a daze. High school, or perhaps the fact there was no more high school. Three days next week, a ceremony and then poof, all gone. There was her show, which was on the back burner, but the outroar had been incredible... though she supposed that if you were in a fishbowl, all the outside gazes were magnified. She had been idly applying for colleges and very carefully avoiding thinking about her adult life and career, and while she was being booted out into the big scary world she still wanted to postpone making any hasty decisions. She didn't know what she wanted to be, what she wanted to do, and couldn't imagine that epiphany striking anytime soon. It was all she could do to put an outfit together for the bush party.

That's the one thing I can always fall back on, she snickered, sashaying out of the living room. I'll always be able to drive THEM insane... though that doesn't exactly pay well.

"You going to be back tonight?"

And you've only asked THAT about ten times... "We'll see, daddy!" Amber called from the kitchen, stocking up at the fridge for some last-minute pre-party reinforcement. "It depends if I can get a ride! I told ya, a lot of people stay out there all night. There's gazebos and picnic, you know, picnic... cabin things by the beach. Heck, some kids just sleep on the beach!"

"That doesn't seem... hygienic," the huge doberman grunted.

"We'll have blankets, daddy."

"Oh. Well. I see. Blankets. All's well that ends well."

"See? YOU understand!" Amber bounced back in, stripping a leftover drumstick with disturbing ease and carrying two plastic containers in her other arm. "Do you mind if I take these? I dunno if there's going to be anything to eat up there except like, you know, hot dogs... and I don't think I can handle that many hot dogs."

"Of course, sweetie," her mom replied, ruffing her husband's short dark hair and tousling Amber's as she passed. "Take whatever you need."

"I'm sure there'll be plenty to drink up there," her father added, to withering glares from both of the felines in his life. Amber opened her mouth to reply when there was a sharp, rapid knock at the door.

Thank the gods, Cindy, you always know how to make an entrance. "That's my ride, I gotta go, bye!" Amber squeaked, giving her mom a quick trembling hug and hopping over to give her dad a smooch on the muzzle. "Be good, you kids, and don't stay up late! Don't have too much fun without me!"

"Awwwww!" Sierra whined, stroking her husband's shoulder meaningfully as Amber skipped out of the room. "Now you're the one being mean!"

---

"Do you EVER stop eating?!"

Cindy's little red car was puttering north as fast as its little wheels would take it, which Amber was starting to realize wasn't all that fast. "For your information, Miss Bossy Bra, no, I don't, and thank you for reminding me." One of the now-empty tupperware containers had been potato salad, which she'd been forced to eat with her bare fingers, and the other had been some off-orange leftovers that she hadn't been able to identify. With her own supplies depleted, she was now eating pouch after pouch of Cheezies from her emergency backup stash in Cindy's back seat. "Last night's show took a lot out of me."

"I'll say!" the bushy-tailed fox agreed a little too easily. "Damn, grrl, we couldn't get all of you to stay in the shot even when you were all the way across the room! Do you... you know... get that big when you're actually WITH someone?"

"You might recall-"

_ _

"I don't mean DURING... or, you know, right at the very END..." Cindy blushed, a rare occurrence for her. "I meant before! Like when you're just hanging out, watching TV. Maybe doing homework or something. Do you ever look like that before things get... frisky?"

It was Amber's turn to blush. She'd longed for the day where she could cut loose, restraint-free on a date and just see where things took her, but she always feared that it would make the next step a little... "Impossible," she sighed. "Things are never going to get frisky if I start out bigger soft than their entire body."

"Maybe you just haven't found the right-"

"What is this?" Amber broke in, crinkling another bag of Cheezies for dramatic effect. "This is nearly one whole minute with you staying on one subject. Something's up."

"No!"

"Uh huh. That's what you said when you were plotting to auction me off at the school dance."

"That-"

"And when you were planning to get me to sing instead of you for the band."

"Well, we-"

"And when you wanted me to get revenge on those poor boys for setting up Luis."

"You had NO complaints about that one! Or hopefully the other ones..."

Amber sighed, leaning sideways and resting her muzzle against Cindy's far more than ample sideboob, tonight clad rather tastefully in an oversized cyan sweater. "My complaints about all those were valid and still stand, sweetie... don't PLOT! Don't SCHEME! Don't MANEUVER! Just... talk to me. Treat me like I'm capable of making my own decisions."

Cindy raised a paw from the steering wheel and crossed her heart, or a close approximation given the current state of her bust. "Look, I swear, I PROMISE, I'm not doing ANY of those things tonight! I just know there's going to be a lot of boys there tonight, and... a lot of them haven't heard of you."

"Uh huh. Right. Like there's anyone in Circe that hasn't heard of Red Alert Amber, the Terror of Trouser Town."

"The... what?"

"It's just some graffiti I saw at the Hub. Surprisingly well-drawn, actually..."

Cindy shook her head. "OK, I wanted this to be a surprise-"

"I KNEW IT!"

"-but there's more than just Circe High going to be at the party."

Yet another Cheezie paused on its way to Amber's maw. "Really? Who else?"

"Uhm... Logan Lake Senior Secondary, Duchess Park High, Sandringham Technical and Halcyon High. I think. It was kind of a hectic week."

Amber blinked. "You're kidding."

The little red car slowed hard and veered onto a side road in considerably worse repair than the highway. There were several pairs of tail lights in the distance, and another car's headlights spun around behind them to follow. "Not at all! Why have a party with the same people you always see? We always try to make this the biggest party anyone's ever been to!"

"What do you mean 'we'? This is your grad year, too! This is your first time!" They drove in silence for several seconds, Cindy driving with unaccustomed care and attention. "Cindy, this _is_your first time to the grad party, right?"

"Hey, it's not my fault I pass for older!" the buxom fox said, tenting her fingers against her beachball-sized breasts. "And no-one ever specifically said I COULDN'T come to the party!"

"Oh, gods..." Amber groaned, dumping the last of the baggie of snacks into her mouth. "Now I can just be embarrassed in front of a thousand strangers."

"That's the spirit! It's just like your show!"

Amber opened her mouth to retort, but nothing came out. She's kind of right... my show's got umpteen thousand fans. This is nothing compared to that. And I was just saying I don't want to feel like a spectacle anymore. Even when I am a spectacle, I just don't want to FEEL like it! This could just be practice.

_ _

"Think they'll be cute?" she asked, leaning once again against Cindy's pillowy curves. Cindy just whooped with glee.

Ten more minutes of winding side roads later, and the dense forest around them seemed to evaporate. In the distance there was a vast strip of sparkling water, glowing a fiery gold in the sunset, and an old-fashioned wooden sign overhead proclaimed Krystal Lake Day Beach And Resort. The natural beauty would have been breathtaking, if it hadn't been broken up by the dust-throwing mob of cars all jockeying for a parking spot.

_ _

"Aaargh!" Cindy grunted, slamming on the brakes again. Amber nearly bounced off the dashboard, while Cindy's bust was already pressed against the steering wheel. "I told everyone seven PM! Seven! It's only six-thirty! Why is everyone taking my spot?!"

"You're upset because they're early?"

"YES! I wanted to park by the beach!"

"Why? It means you'll be the last one to get OUT when everyone leaves!"

"Because I wanted to make a grand entrance!"

The parking lot was set up to handle the busiest days of summer, hundreds of families hauling boats and RVs, but it was already nearly at capacity. Anyone showing up on time was going to have to start parking on the access road in. "Look, just park wherever you can find a spot. Fifteen minutes hunting for a spot can be replaced by parking HERE and just walking for five. Or park HERE. Or maybe... HERE. HERE. Cindy, can you even see the empty spots?"

"SHUT UP!" Cindy's eyes panned back and forth angrily. "Dammit, he took my spot!"

"What 'your spot'? They're little rectangles of dirt!"

"It was in a good crowd!"

"What is with you and your obsession with making a big entrance?! Just park the fucking car!"

"AH HAH! PERFECT!"

Amber was pressed hard against Cindy's sweater from the G forces, but the little car swerved into a slot that would have been too small for almost any other domestic vehicle. The kitteh wasn't entirely sure that she could even open her door far enough to get her hips through. "What the hell? I've got like six inches of room on this side! How much do you... DAMMIT!"

Cindy was already climbing out of the driver's side, where she had more than enough space. "HEY, EVERYONE!" the vixen cried, to assorted cheers in response. The statuesque and respectably hyper fox tended to attract that sort of reaction wherever she went. "WOO!"

The kitteh managed to cram her loins through the narrow opening (oh boy do I just pick the best words to describe things, she thought, feeling a familiar stirring and tingling in her undies), sidling between Cindy's car and a big blue truck until she was free. "Dammit, I got road dust on my outfit! Cindy! What the hell kind of big entrance is this?"

Cindy was standing between the rows of cars, twisting and stretching the kinks out of her back. She wore, for her, a very modest outfit, with nary an inch of cleavage exposed, although her black pants were tight enough that Amber was fairly sure some sort of high-tech lubricant had been required to get into them. Huh, maybe for once she's not trying to be the center of atten-

_ _

With an oft-rehearsed motion, Cindy gripped the bottom of her sweater and managed to whip it completely off like a stage magician removing a table cloth.

-never mind.

The cheers doubled in volume, and were now joined by honks from passing cars. Cindy was still clothed, in the strictest sense of the word, but now she only wore... "Is that the black thing you wore when we... you know... in your basement..."

White fox fur fairly glowed against the inky blackness of the stretchy, rubbery material. It was theoretically a bra, except that a bra typically offered more coverage. Lingerie would be putting it mildly. Amber had seen bikini tops that left more to the imagination. "What, this old thing?" Cindy grinned, knuckling the base of her back and nearly losing her own muzzle in her decolletage. "Ahhh, it's good to get out of that cramped space!"

"You mean the car, right?"

"Sure, let's go with that. Come on, grrl! There's a-partying to be had!"

Neither teen was particularly prone to skipping, each one having a distinctly non-standard center of gravity, but they clung to eachothers arm and did their very best attempt. They were nearly half a kilometer from the beach itself, which gave them plenty of time to offer greetings to those they passed, friend and strangers alike, and there were certainly more of the latter than the former. "This is like being in the City, or Freeport," Amber breathed, trying to keep her nethers at least mostly within the confines of her skirt as they frolicked. "All these new faces! And it figures they're all looking at you."

"Darling, I don't want you hanging off me all night. I don't need a wingbabe. You need to spread your wings and fly on your own!"

Amber gawked. "Fly on my own? You con me into everything!"

"From a certain point of view, that could be considered to be true," Cindy replied thoughtfully, as though it had never occurred to her before. "But once we hit the beach, we go our own ways, all right? I mean, we'll have to meet up to compare notes and stuff, but go make a big splash of your own!"

Amber winced as her sac bounced heavily, positive everyone could hear the sloshing. "Oooo, don't say those words, I'm trying NOT to do that tonight!"

"Awww, party-pooper! There's, like, a million boys here who have never heard about you! Though rumors will probably start spreading... you know, spreading like their-"

"HEY! Language!"

She couldn't begin to hazard a guess as to how many kids might be at the gathering. Some cars seemed to be carrying half a dozen apiece, maybe more, and there were, what, five whole schools involved? How many graduates would each one have... and how many students weren't graduating at all, and were just 'experiencing', as Cindy herself had?

They eventually reached the end of the gravel parking lot and found themselves on a verdant grassy crescent that seemed to stretch off into the distance, wrapping around the entire lake for all Amber knew. There were open-walled log cabins and gazebos everywhere, and a handful of bonfires were already blazing merrily away on the beach, and each one seemed to be producing its own cacophanous rock music. A group of stocky boys in matching shirts trooped by, loaded down with firewood; obviously, more fires were coming. Several of them glanced appreciatively at Cindy's exposed fur, but Amber supposed one or two of them might have spared a moment for herself. She preened regardless.

"Woo!" the statuesque fox breathed, nervously gripping Amber's paw. "Definitely more than last year!"

"I still can't believe you went to this last year and didn't tell me," Amber grunted. "I remember the last week of school! You told me you were going to another family barbecue!"

"Well, I have some family here! The Shastas have sizeable representations all over this part of the country, and I saw at least two cousins." Cindy was shifting from foot to foot, still scanning the milling throngs of young men and women. She seemed to be waiting for something. "Gosh, there's a LOT here this time! I wonder if more schools got invited..."

"You don't know? I thought you were on the planning committee!"

"I was on the Circe portion of the planning committee, but this thing sort of... plans itself, ya know?"

There was a chorus of screams and cheers, punctuating a colossal splash. On one of the nearby docks, it seemed that a brief struggle between high school factions had ended with a significant number of students being pushed fully-clothed into the water. There were smiles all around, though, as the victors helped pull the losers from the lake. "Yeah, this looks like a masterwork of organizational preparedness."

"Oh, stop complaining. Gah! We've been here five minutes and I still don't have a drink!"

"Now who's complaining? And besides, if you wanted a drink, why didn't you bring-"

"WOOO!" Amber nearly leapt out of her fur when a heavily-muscled arm slung itself hard across her shoulder, nearly bowling her over. She was only saved from a grassy tumble by the fact that the arm was so long that it actually crossed her chest like a seatbelt. She stared up at the towering elk that had thundered his way between herself and Cindy. "Cindy! You made it!"

"Tyrone!" Cindy squealed with ear-piercing delight, bouncing hard enough that even the Sintex material of her 'top' creaked worryingly. "What's up, buddy?! Ty, this is Amber!! Amber, this is Tyrone!!"

Both of Amber's ears were flattened by the sheer volume from Cindy and Tyrone. "Pleased to meet you," she mumbled, trying to get the elk's forearm to lift some of the pressure, but it was like lifting cinderblocks. "Uh-"

"You just get here?!" he bellowed.

"Yeah, we-"

"YOU BET!" Cindy interrupted. "Trying to find a friendly cooler! Ya know any?!"

"FOR YOU, ANYWHERE!" Tyrone laughed, his wrist trying to get to second base with Amber's torso. "IN FACT..."

Amber breathed a sigh of relief as Tyrone's arm disappeared, freeing her. He was far taller than even Cindy, with broad enough shoulders that the kitteh wasn't entirely sure she could even grab both simultaneously. Despite his bulk his waist was quite small, tapering down from his deep purple muscle shirt to a pair of faded jeans. See, now if you stand back a little bit, you're way more my type, Amber mused, struck with the urge to reach out and feel one of his biceps.

Tyrone was busy rummaging around in his pockets, though, and soon produced two small, white bottles. "Just in case, you know!" he laughed uproariously, holding them out. Cindy took one instantly, and gestured for Amber to take the other.

She glanced at the label. "You just take random pants-booze from strangers in the woods?" Amber asked wryly, taking the bottle but not making any move to twist off the cap.

"HE'S NOT A STRANGER, HE'S TYRONE!" Cindy giggled. "He's harmless! Well, actually, no, he's ridiculously destructive... he's kind of the reason the Whitefish haven't brought home a trophy for the last three years. Go Outbacks!"

Tyrone tugged a little bashfully at his shirt, and Amber could just make out the black-on-purple logo of the Sandringham football team. "Oh... I remember you, I think! You fell on our quarterback. Halfback. Someback..."

"It's what I do," the elk rumbled with a smile. The shyness was only temporary, though. With a flick of his wrists he reached out and popped the top off Amber's drink for her and then fished yet another drink out of a back pocket for himself. "DOWN THE HATCH, ANGIE!"

"Amber."

"OH, RIGHT, AMBER! CINDY TOLD ME ABOUT YOU!"

"Great." She sniffed at the bottle hesitantly. She'd seen the many varieties of 'hard lemonade' before, but she'd never actually tried one. Surprisingly, it reminded her of the blue drinks that she'd enjoyed at the New Year's party in the City. "Cindy, are you-"

"DRINK, BITCH!" Cindy yipped, licking the last drops from the top of her own now-empty bottle. "Come on, it's tradition! Spike one as soon as you get here! It loosens you up! After that you can teetotal all you want! You don't want to hurt Ty's feelings, right?"

In the fading light of deep sunset, the colossal elk actually managed to put on a respectable pair of puppy-dog eyes, and Amber couldn't help her bubbling giggles. "Ok, FINE. But no more pants-booze after this, ok?"

"Fine! There's way better things in pants around here!"

"CINDY!"

"AMBER!"

They shared a knowing grin, and Cindy clapped gaily as Amber brought the bottle to her lips, and leaned way, way back...

---

"No-o-o, no-o-o, I'm fine, really!"

Amber wasn't sure which bonfire she was even at anymore. They lit up the immense sandy strand like a string of Crimbo lights, party-fueled Brownian currents of students flowing from one to the next. She wondered what it would take for her to get a bonfire in her room. Oooohhhhmygosh it's so-o-o-o-o warm and friendly and crackly and warm. Though it's probably not the same without the crowds.

_ _

She didn't recognize anyone else at this particular fire. There were half a dozen different school logos visible on shirts, hats and backpacks, and although there was a skunk boy wearing a Circe bandana Amber couldn't place his name. Her fingers and toes tingled, and she was starting to suspect it wasn't entirely due to the proximity to the towering flames.

"You sure?" the burly canid said, leering unsteadily. "It's orange... ish... I think." He squinted at the bottle for several long seconds before nodding and offering it to Amber once again.

Amber graciously declined once more, careful not to pat him reassuringly anywhere. She had learned quite rapidly that any sort of physical contact seemed to be taken as a tacit approval of reciprocity, and she didn't know if her rump could handle any more gropes. "I just finished one, thanks. Really."

The stocky terrier wiggled the bottle one last time, but when it seemed as if his gallantry was not to be accepted he shrugged and took a swig himself, moving clockwise around the fire in search of better company. Amber sighed and swayed in the gentle breeze, bringing her tail around her legs to soak up some of the fire's warmth. Nearby a battery-powered boom box was blasting some slightly less distorted but very up-tempo rock, and she found herself bopping up and down on her heels to the beat.

This is... a lot of people. A handful of people roughly her own age had stopped her to vigorously shake her hand, proclaiming themselves to be huge fans of her show, and insist that they COMPLETELY understood if she needed to take some time off. There were sometimes introductions to friends not familiar with the show, some toothy selfies, and then the loyal viewers vanished into the darkness. By and large, though, no-one here knew who she was other than a rather remarkably-endowed and moderately-pretty kitteh-herm.

Amber glanced down at her skirts, which were still covering most of her bulges. She couldn't believe that after three... no, no, four drinks, several hugs, and a few sweaty dance partners, she hadn't swelled noticeably. There was a little more weight, a little more blood filling out her sheath, but this was still downright small by her standards.

She frowned. It was a thought of but a brief moment, but she was suddenly terrified she was no longer a hyper. It can't wear off THAT fast, can it?! I was just getting the hang of things!! I mean, I'm still pretty big, I guess, but... no, I'm pretty sure that's stupid and it's just the Pete's Wicked Summer Brew talking. Bleargh. People drink those on purpose?

_ _

"AMBER!"

Her catlike reflexes had been somewhat dulled by her pubescent development, to say nothing of the free drinks, but she still managed to turn around in time for Cindy's half-sprinting hug to strike her head-on. Cindy contorted to get her arms around Amber's neck, while the surprised kitteh was clinging to the vixen's sideboob for dear life. "Mmmf!"

"ARE YOU HAVING FUN?!"

"Mmffvmmm... YES, dammit! Lean back!"

The crowd hooted and applauded as Cindy reluctantly took a step away, tugging at the straps of her 'top'. Amber might be the only true hyper at the party, but the cheerleader's bust was significantly more popular. "Sorry! I thought you were all super-strong..."

"Yes, but I still answer to physics and inertia! Most of the time."

"That's not what they said when they had to close the gym-"

"HEY!"

Cindy just winked and fiddled with her top some more. Amber thought it must have been pinching fur somewhere, but instead the fox reached into her cleavage and produced, of course, two bottles. "I brought you a present!"

Amber sighed. "Cindy, I... I've had enough for now, OK? I learned my lesson on New Years... as if the 'special coffee incident' wasn't enough of a lesson."

There were half-hearted choruses of 'Drink! Drink! Drink!' from the crowd, but Amber was heartened to see some of the louder males being reined in by their female companions. Is this what it's like when you're a grownup? You just drink until you do something stupid? I do enough stupid stuff when I'm stone-cold sober!

_ _

"Awwww... I guess they're both for me then!" Cindy grinned, clinking the bottles together. "Unless anyone here wants to volunteer to whet their whistles with me?"

Amber stepped back when the brief fight for dominance erupted in the sand before her. Paw-eye coordination wasn't in large supply anymore, though, so the battle was swift and decisive. Cindy pulled the victors from the pile of flailing limbs and sauntered off into the darkness with them, a woozily-leering minkboi and an equally-slender fox, each one claiming one of Cindy's rump cheeks.

The kitteh clucked her tongue and sighed, turning back to the fire. "She's... friendly," she said to the crowd's amused stares. "I swear she's mostly normal most of the time."

"Normal sucks!" shouted someone from the back, to a ripple of amused laughter.

"Tell me about it," Amber mumbled. A few people broke away from the fire when it was apparent the immediate entertainment had ceased, and two of the girls (_wait, one's a grrl,_Amber realized, sizing up a sturdily-built doe with a very healthy amount of maleness stuffed into hir cutoff jean shorts) paused to pat her reassuringly on the shoulder.

I guess it really is like my show, she thought, staring into the huge bonfire's coals. Yeah, there's some jerkwads out there who keep commenting that I should take it all off and fwoomp someone on camera, but I guess most of the people are respectful. It's just the jerks are always louder, and the best people just offer you a pat and a smile and go on their way.

But he's still got a point.

She smiled, clenched her fists and shouted back, "NORMAL SUCKS!"

The crowd whooped their agreement, and the chant would have started right then and there had they been able to agree on a cadence. It came down to two sides clapping and repeating "NORMAL SUCKS!", just out of synch enough that you could be fooled into thinking it was "NUCKS SERMAL!". No-one seemed to care, so Amber didn't either.

Her whiskers trembled, and she glanced back over her shoulder. After gazing into the depths of the fire for so long even her gifted feline vision was only picking up blobs of light and darkness, and there didn't seem to be enough of either one to make up a person. "Hmm?"

"Uh... hi," rumbled a voice several inches above her head, and a lot closer than she'd expected. "Are you... uhm..."

"Amber? Yeah, that's me," she smiled, wondering when the next selfie request was going to happen.

"Uhm... I was going to say 'busy'... uhm..."

The monochromatic blobs slowly coalesced into a monochromatic burly figure standing just outside the circle illuminated by the bonfire. A featureless black t-shirt and a pair of black pants adorned a body that seemed to be little other than glossy black fur, and it was only the streaks of white on his forehead and neck that identified where the voice was coming from. "Oh, sorry," Amber blushed. See? Not everyone is a fan of your show! Jeez! Calm down, Matt Damon. "No, I'm not busy. Just... staring. At the fire," she added helpfully, pointing it out just in case it wasn't obvious.

The thick-set badger shifted back and forth, glancing at the fire and nodding. "Mmm," he said. "I."

The bonfire crackled. Another couple drifted away, and were replaced almost instantly by a bare-chested wolf dropping a clinking cooler into the sand with a whoop. Icy bottles were distributed with the sort of brisk efficiency normally reserved for elite military operations. Amber smiled up at the badger's big, glittering onyx eyes, wondering if he was going to complete that thought.

... no-o-ope.

_ _

She shrugged and turned back to the fire, and the badger jerked as though startled. "I mean, I KNOW you're Amber..." he blurted out, immediately taking half a step back. "Sorry, that probably isn't cool to just... run up on you like that..."

Amber glanced back over her shoulder. "Why?"

The badger blinked. "What?"

"Why isn't it cool for you to politely ask me if I'm busy, assuming you already know who I am? That seems pretty cool, to me."

The badger's little ears flattened back, and for a moment Amber expected to see him turn and run. She was used to boys at her own school doing that when she got 'overly flirty', since they knew the stories, but she'd hoped the students from the other towns wouldn't be quite so taken aback by the well-endowed herm. ESPECIALLY since her body seemed to be behaving itself, for once!

"I," the badger repeated.

Amber sighed and reached out to take the badger's paw, dragging him back into the firelight. It was like trying to pull a mighty oak out of the ground; he was big and clearly reluctant, but the resistance still surprised her. "Look, get over here so we can talk normally, and oh my goodness I'm sorry," she coaxed, trailing off when she saw him in full light for the first time.

He was mostly as she'd put him together in her mind: burly yet soft-looking, a comfy layer of plush over what had to be a respectable amount of muscle, easily a foot taller than she. In profile, though, and with the stark dancing firelight playing over him, she became aware that he was in all likelihood proportionally more well-hung, something that she almost never experienced in-person.

The badger shoved his hands into his pockets, and it was a few seconds before either of them noticed that Amber's paw had ended up in one of them as well. A ripple of mirth passed through the crowd and a few elbows were nudged into ribs, but no-one actually said anything. Thank heavens for small mercies, Amber thought. Well, not too small... damn, fella! They must have an Addition-Elle in your town...

_ _

Amber gingerly withdrew her paw, snickering at how the big boy seemed to be withdrawing into his own shirt. He was clearly nervous, and her nostrils flared reflexively. She tugged at the bottom of her shirt, now wishing she'd chosen to show off more than just her hermness. The neon pink top was as tight as she dared, to the point that she actually could feel the threads giving way near her armpits, but she'd been forced to compromise with her father on the 'cleavage issue'. As though that made the discussion any less painful.

"You don't have to stand there just because I dragged you over, you know," she stage-whispered, leaning far to the side.

"No, I'm... I'm fine," he mumbled, staring into the fire. "I just... wanted to say hi..."

"That was literally the first thing you said to me, so I guess mission accomplished?"

The badger's muzzle dipped a little bit lower and he stifled a sigh. "Yeah. I guess I did," he noted softly. "OK."

He trudged away, slouching and perhaps digging his toes into the sand harder than was necessary. His lips moved silently, any words drowned out between the dim of the crowd, the noisy howl of stereos and the rhythmic lapping of windblown waves against the shore. He thought he heard some laughter behind him, but he was used to that.

He definitely wasn't used to suddenly finding a slender but powerful arm wrapping around his own, an insistently energetic weight pulling at him. "I didn't say you couldn't say MORE," Amber chided, falling into step with him. "I was just trying to get more than four words in a row out of you without them being separated by ellipses."

The badger's eyes widened. "Amber," he said, surprised.

"Got it in one! I can see you're one of the smart kids. Valedictorian?"

"I... no? I..."

"Ahhh, debate club. I can tell."

"Heh. That's... no, not debate..."

"Do you ever finish a sentence that you start?"

"... yes?"

Amber laughed. "I'll take what I can get. But if you don't tell me your name soon I'm afraid I'm going to have to scamper off. I was always taught never to walk off into the darkness with strangers."

The badger looked around as if suddenly realizing that, yes, they were walking off together, and yes, they were walking well away from the fires in what could be considered darkness, and yes, he supposed that if he knew who she was and she didn't know who HE was, then...

"My name's Randolph," he managed at last.

"Like the reindeer?"

"No, that's Ru-... that was a joke."

"Evidently not," Amber snickered, squeezing his arm again. "I hope I'm not just annoying the hell out of you. You seemed a little reluctant, and I am a firm believer in dragging the truth out of people with my bare paws. Blunt force honesty. Say, that would be a good slogan for my show..."

"Show?"

They were passing by another bonfire now, but far enough away that Amber couldn't freeload any of its heat. A strange moaning seemed to emanate from the lake, which turned out to be two people becoming very, very good friends in the wet sand. "I'm glad my night vision sucks right now," she chuckled, swinging her tail against Randolph's legs. "I'm going to use you for your warmth. Hope that's ok."

"Myup," the big badger replied.

"Good. You look familiar..."

Randolph stiffened, although in the gloom Amber wasn't sure if it was just his arm or if other parts were affected. "Me?"

"No, the guy on my OTHER arm." Amber tried to gauge his dimensions in profile once again as they passed beyond the bonfire, and felt a moment of guilt. I know this is what everyone does to me every hour of every day... dammit, I get to do it, too! He seemed a bit more in proportion than herself, given his height and general girth, but the kitteh was still fairly sure there was a solid fifty pounds of flesh straining at his tailored jeans. "But if I had been talking to you, you think I'd remember someone like you."

"Y-yeah," the badger nodded, with only the tiniest wheeze. "Sorry, I'm... not really great at... talking. To people."

"But you're better at talking to inanimate objects? Doors? Trees? Clouds? Because you know a cloud might LOOK like it's listening, but it doesn't care. Clouds are above that sort of thing."

Randolph chuckled and nodded. "Yeah. I mean, no, I just... I'm kind of shy."

"NO WAY!!" Amber bellowed, really putting her vocal training and breath control to good use. "REALLY?! ME TOO!"

Randolph wilted under the onslaught, but to his credit he managed to keep walking alongside the manically giggling kitteh. "I guess I deserved that," he sighed. "You know, you really don't NEED to keep holding my-"

"Do you want me to go away?"

"Wha...? No!"

"Then shut up when a girl hugs your arm. I walked over here, my choice, and I'm still here, my choice. Are you not interesting enough to talk to?"

"I dunno about THAT interesting..."

"Really? Oh. OK. I'll leave, then."

Amber untwined herself from Randolph and planted her feet, allowing the big badger to keep walking. She crossed her arms under her breasts and chewed her lip, wondering if there was any give and take inside the rather handsome boy. He was ten gallons of nervous in five gallon pants, but she didn't want to spend her entire night crowbarring polite conversation out of him.

Randolph ground to a stop a few steps away, turning slowly and looking abashedly at his feet, or at least where his feet would be if he could see them over the tremendous mound just below his belt. "I..."

Come on, big fella... make momma proud...

_ _

In the darkness Amber could just make out a wry smile twisting his muzzle. "I don't always talk to pretty strangers at beach parties," he said, adopting a faint accent, "but when I do, I make sure it's the prettiest one."

Amber rolled her eyes and walked alongside him once more, slipping her arm into his. "So you're saying you're the MOST interesting badger in the world."

He rumbled and gave her arm a squeeze in return. "I might have overshot, I was trying to be just interesting enough to keep you from walking away."

"Eh, either way. And see? A whole sentence without any ers, ums or pauses! Good for you!"

"You don't NEED to point that out..."

"I don't NEED to drag you over to that fire and make you get me a drink, but I'm going to do it anyways. Come on, big fella. Beer me!"

---

"Pleh... beer? Really? Why do people DRINK this?"

Amber glared at the bottle in her paw, examined the contents critically, and chugged the rest of it with a wince. "Bleargh."

Randolph took a sip from his. "You sure complain a lot for someone who keeps doing that."

"They are increasingly less horrible," Amber conceded, "but still... there's like twenty different kinds of pale ale here, and they all taste like... like... well, something that would be unladylike for me to mention!"

"Piss?"

Amber hiccuped and giggled. "Thank you. I should pay you to follow me around and say bad words for me. Ooo! You can be my Profanity Slave!"

"I'm honored," he said dryly.

The pair had drifted through half a dozen bonfires, mooching beverages where they were able. She didn't know what time it was, but from the faint chill in the air she knew it had to be sometime after midnight. It wasn't unpleasant by any means, but it was still a reminder that they weren't yet into the hottest depths of summer. Or heights of summer, she thought. Heights probably makes more sense than depths.

Amber had done most of the talking, which suited the both of them just fine. Randolph was content to stand around and look big while the slender kitteh on his arm chatted and joked with increasingly tipsy strangers. More than one partygoer noted that the two of them made an excellent couple, as they were both rather obviously over-endowed, which was nearly the only thing that got the badger to say anything. "We're not together," they would both protest, even as their arms remained securely locked.

The crowds had gotten a little thinner, and a few of the fires had gone out and their piles of fuel dragged to other locations, but it seemed there was still quite a lot of party left to be had.

Amber sighed and carefully ground her empty bottle into the sand, where it joined a hundred other little glass soldiers. "Someone's going to pay for college with recycling deposits," she chuckled, rising unsteadily to her feet and clinging to Randolph's heavy arm. "I've got one year paid for, thanks to my folks, but after that... I dunno."

"What are you taking?" the badger asked, dropping his own empty alongside hers.

"Uhm... stuff. General Knowledge, I guess you could say."

"That sounds good. The world needs more generals."

Amber stared up at him. "You're making fun of me now."

"No-o-o," Randolph said gravely.

"I can kick pretty hard, you know."

"I bet even your kicks are cute, and-OW!"

"See?"

The crowd laughed, and even Randolph had to smile as he rubbed his shin. "OK, I walked into that one. But seriously, what are your plans?"

"But seriously, those are my plans. Or that's where my plans WOULD be, if I had any. It's a big plan-shaped hole in my future. I'm just gonna do what I do best and start sticking stuff in there until I find something that fits."

A couple of Circe students began coughing uncontrollably, evidence that their hearing wasn't being adversely affected by the alcohol. Randolph's head swished back and forth, eyes narrowing at the reaction. "Good turn of phrase," he said softly, stubby tail wagging.

"Hey, no commentary from the peanut gallery!" Amber shouted, which only caused the amusement to swell. "I... he... you guys are just lucky school's almost out! Well, except you, Luis."

"Bleat."

The kitteh swayed. This isn't at all what New Years Eve was like! That party was all a crazy rush of dancing and sweating and free snacks and those little blue drinks that made my numb go tongue... this is just being dizzy and clingy and gropey. She paused and carefully removed her paw from Randolph's rump, resheathing her claws. "Sorry."

"No problem," he murmured. "You... needed some help balancing. I assume."

"Yeah, that's it..." She stifled a yawn, her tail fluffing up enormously. "Man. I must be getting old. I can't party like I used to anymore!"

"It's the old folks home for you after this, I'm afraid."

"Dammit. I HATE creamed corn."

"But maybe you'll be lucky and some strapping young nurse will be on hand to give you spongebaths."

"Oooo, now you're talking," she murred. "Think a little bit of bleach and I can pass for a white-haired little old lady?"

"I mean this with all respect, but no chance in hell," he laughed. "You have the dirty leer of a fifty year old. They'd be sure to catch on."

"Damn." She yawned again, leaning against the sturdy badger and nuzzling his elbow with her cheek. "So, which school DO you go to? It's going to totally harsh my mellow if you're from somewhere like Sandringham and it's going to be a two hour drive just to see you again."

Randolph's chest hitched and he raked his fingers back through his black and white hair. "Uhm... I went to Circe."

"Hah, right. You've been walking through the halls all year and I SOMEHOW never saw you. Where were you hiding yourself? Cafeteria kitchens?"

"No, just... regular classes." He took a deep breath, and Amber could feel his shoulders drawing together. "Last year."

"Last year?"

"Last year."

"As in... not this year."

"Right."

"Not the year that's just ending right now. LAST year."

"Yeah."

"So I would have been in grade eleven."

"Yee-up."

Amber tried to form all of her thoughts into a straight line, which was harder than she'd expected. She wasn't just dizzy on the outside, she was dizzy on the inside. "So what the hell are you doing here? If you graduated LAST year, isn't this just, like... not your party?"

"That never seemed to stop Cindy."

"HAH! Good point. You know Cindy?"

"I know OF her... EVERYONE knows OF her," he chuckled. "I do know you two were always hanging out together last year."

"I suddenly feel like I'm at that part of the movie where the plucky heroine discovers that the dreamy boy is actually a creepy stalker," Amber frowned.

Randolph paused to digest that. "Are you saying I'm dreamy?"

"HAH! Congratulations, that was the correct response," she grinned. "But this is still a little weird. I mean, why show up here? You're all grown up, from what I can see. We're a bunch of dumb kids."

"It's only ONE year age difference between us."

"That's, like, seven cat years!"

"Oh, you hush." It wasn't easy to tell from his coloring, but she was fairly certain he was blushing. "Do you want to go for a walk?"

Oh my gods he's actually asking YOU to go for a walk, rather than letting YOU drag HIS ass around! AUGH, don't think about his ass! "Sure," she purred softly, patting his arm reassuringly. "I get the feeling this is gonna be good. Uh... I mean whatever story you're about to tell me, not... anything else."

"Bleat."

"Shut up, Luis!"

Away from the firelight, Amber realized just how tipsy she'd become. "Eurgh... ok, seriously. No more beer for me. I'm done with that. Like, forever."

"You sure? You said that two beers ago, and then said you just needed to test yourself."

"Ooooo look at you, Mister 'My Short Term Memory Hasn't Been Affected By Alcohol', la di da. And this isn't about me!"

Krystal Lake was a destination outdoor holiday location. Once they were away from the fires, Amber could just make out all of the other cabins, campsites and RV parks on the far shore. Trails wound their way through all of the surrounding hills, and there were a dozen ways to completely circumnavigate the lake. Tiny solar-powered lights barely brighter than a candle marked the edges of these paths, and the pair found themselves heading up one of them, away from the beach.

Randolph looked up. "I don't get out here often enough."

"The lake?"

He shrugged. "Just out of the city. I spend all week either working or studying."

"Do you still live in Circe? Studying what? Where do you work?"

"Whoa, whoa, easy there, one at a time. Yeah, I still live in Circe, and I'm full time at the community college right now. Halfway through the summer semester, and then it's... off to the City."

Smooth gravel and pine needles crunched and shifted beneath their paws as they walked, the path angling very slightly uphill. "Whoa, summer semester? Harsh. For what?"

"Ah. Pre-med."

Amber whistled. "Wow, that's... damn. That's impressive. I didn't know they did medical stuff at the community college!"

"It's PRE med. Well, more like pre-pre-med, and it's pretty much just all the upgrade courses and proctored distance programs I can manage before moving out."

"Is that why your mind immediately went to strapping young nurses giving me a sponge bath?" she snickered, elbowing him in the ribs. "I bet you'd look so cute in pink scrubs."

"They're more of a... lavender color."

"You're kidding. You're ACTUALLY a nurse?"

Randolph sighed. "Yeah."

"That's AWESOME!"

"What?"

The higher they walked, the less brisk the evening air seemed. The night was full of wonderful scents, trees and flowers and that peculiar odor that always reminded Amber of the sidewalk just after it rained. Randolph was an inky patch against the darkness, except for his white ventral stripes. "What do you mean, what? Of course that's awesome. Pre medical? Being a nurse? HELPING people? Damn, I could only dream to have the sort of work ethic for something like that..."

"Uh... thanks," he huffed. "Some people don't think it's so-"

"Who makes fun of you?"

"What?"

"Oh, we are so not doing that 'What ain't no country I ever heard of, they speak English in What?' routine again. I know you, I know this whole schtick. You're afraid of talking to girls because they might laugh at you or make fun of you, you're afraid of telling people you're a nurse because they might laugh at you or make fun of you, and you're probably afraid of wearing tight pants because people might laugh at you or make fun of you. I know your type. I know this whole game back to front. So tell me, seriously: WHO makes fun of you?"

Randolph had tried to extricate his arm from Amber's while she talked, or perhaps more accurately while she ranted, but she still clung to his broad paw with both of her own. "Uhm... I don't know. People, uh... used to..."

"Who?"

"Uhm... high school... and this girl..."

"HEY! Don't go back to three word mini-sentences!" Amber growled, feeling heat flushing through her. "One girl? OK, we're off to a good start. One girl. And?"

"Look, I'm... just not very good with people..."

"That's a shitty trait for a nurse."

"Well, I'm not afraid of PATIENTS! That's different!"

"Is it? You're afraid of people because you're afraid of what they might think. I would imagine how people see their medical practitioners is WAY more important than what some random girl at a bush party thinks about some random guy!"

Silence flowed around them, shortly carrying with it distant strains of music and laughter. Amber's blood was pounding in her ears, and the only sign Randolph was still there was the sound of him shifting his weight from paw to paw. Whoa, grrl, you're getting a little aggro here. Maybe back off just a little?

_ _

Shut up, me!

_ _

Whoa, relax, all right.

_ _

"I'm not very good with people," he repeated, almost below hearing. "Crowds... strangers... when I'm just trying to be me. When I'm at work, it's not the same. That's just my job. I'm supposed to be there, I'm supposed to help. I have a reason."

Amber's scowl softened, and she hoped his night vision was better than hers so it wasn't wasted. "And what, you don't have a reason to be at this party? You don't have a reason to be at school? Seems like the entire purpose of handsome, healthy boys in high school is to talk to girls. As often as possible. And... if I can be a little overly honest, it seems like they'd have some BIG reasons to talk to you." She flicked one claw against the side of his denim-clad bulge, eliciting a yip of fright.

"That's different!" he whined, reminding Amber of a vacuum cleaner motor choking on a sock. "And besides, I..."

She tapped her foot. "Besides, what?"

"Besides... I wasn't this big last year."

"Well, ok, sure, you're still growing, but you had to be mostly this big."

"Uhm... nope."

The tapping paused. "What?"

"I was... I guess normal sized last year."

"Whoa. Puberty hit you like a ton of bricks, huh?"

"Uhm... nope."

Oh, you didn't. "Oh, you didn't," she breathed, wondering where that echo was coming from. "Did you go under the knife or something?"

"Uhm... tailored Tee-plus hormone therapy."

In the faintly romantic light of the pathway's edge lamps, Amber sized him up once more. Big badger, big shoulders, a little soft-looking. Take away a little muscle, take away a little height, take away a LOT of junk, maybe add some glasses... "Rando?"

Randolph snorted. "I knew you'd remember me."

"You were the Amazing Rando!" Amber cried, clapping her hands together. "Oh, man, I REMEMBER that! No-one does magic tricks anymore! That was the BEST part of the Spring Fling last year!"

"Says you."

"Oh come on! I laughed so hard I almost peed!"

"It wasn't supposed to be FUNNY!" he bellowed, the final word reverberating back to them over and over.

Amber's ears flattened, and the last few minutes of their conversation reordered themselves in her mind. "We... laughed at you," she said at last, guilt swirling amongst her pale ales. "It wasn't to make FUN of you, it was because... well, I mean, it was funny. The birds went the wrong way, and the metal ring got caught on your glasses, and then the milk..."

"I remember," he growled, but there was no more anger in his voice, just tired resignation. "I homeschooled the rest of the year."

The kitteh's jaw dropped. "What, really?! I just thought... I mean, I wanted to tell you how great your act was, but I just assumed with that many students, and you being a senior, I just was never in the right places to see you. I know it didn't go according to plan, but you were the talk of the school for a WEEK! Longer, probably! People started doing magic tricks in the halls!"

"Illusions," Randolph said automatically. "And I doubt they were having much success after a week."

"Fuck no! They were terrible! It was HILARIOUS! You single-handedly dragged our happiness quotient up by like ten points, or however they measure happiness. Heh, I bet if they ever found a happiness particle, it would HAVE to be called the positron-"

"They were all just laughing at me."

"Well, yeah! You got up in front of everyone and made a complete ass of yourself! And you know what?"

Randolph sulked, half-turning away, and Amber feared his feet were already planning to take the path back down to the beach. "What."

"Everyone there, every single person, wished they had the guts, the bravery, the BALLS to get up in front of a thousand students, show off a talent, fail UTTERLY... and still end up the highlight of the night. If you'd come to school the next Monday, you probably would have found people lining up to shake your paw." Amber still clutched his, her fingers slowly stroking his palm. "I'm not saying it didn't feel horrible when it happened to you... gods know I've made a fool of myself in front of the entire school more than once, being Red Alert Amber and all that, and I just wanted to crawl under a rock and die, but when I got out from under that rock everyone was still there, and they were smiling."

"Right." He still looked to be on the verge of bolting, but Amber didn't have to physically restrain him, which she counted as a win.

She took a deep breath, her shirt tightening awkwardly but pleasantly across the front. "So let me guess... you transformed yourself. Out with the old Rando, in with the new Randolph. No more glasses, definitely some more time in the gym, and what had to be some very expensive pills? Please tell me you went through a reputable doctor for those."

"Uhm... Doctor Martin Edwards."

"NO!" Amber gasped. "My mom works at his office! HAH! That's awesome! Well, yeah, he's good people, I guess! He's helped me through the worst of... well, you know, all this," she giggled, patting the side of her pink-clad bulges, which finally seemed to have responded to the night's festivities and were significantly more than one paw could possibly cover now.

"Swell."

"And the transformed you, I'm going out on a limb here... magically didn't acquire a fifty-five gallon drum of confidence. The all-new-and-improved Rando still had problems talking to girls, problems with crowds, problems with life."

"... yeah."

"Because none of those things have anything to do with your BODY, dumbass!" Amber snickered, slapping his shoulder and immediately regretting it. Jeez, he's built like brick under that floof!"You were still the same guy underneath! Driving a new body isn't going to change anything! I mean, look at me. You remember me from Grade 11, right? Nothing special."

Randolph coughed, staring down at Amber's body. "I wouldn't say that."

"Psshh. What do you know? But this year... I mean, I developed a lot over the summer, and that was just the beginning. Look, do you really not know who I am? I mean, other than Amber who kinda hangs out with Cindy?"

He cocked his head. "No?"

A slow smile spread across her face. "Buddy, you're probably the last person here who DOESN'T know all about me, and I plan to take full advantage of that. Come on... you and me are going to find somewhere comfortable to sit down."

Amber started to walk, towing Randolph behind her, and after a few steps he stopped resisting. "Why?"

"Because you're not the only person who had to deal with a crazy body and no confidence this year, and it's time Red Alert Amber did some good in this world."

"Red Alert what-?" he managed, but a certain kitteh was accelerating, and was a great deal stronger than she looked.

---

Cindy and her companions staggered away from the beachside gazebo, supporting eachother far more than they were able to support themselves. The cooler had surrendered the last of its precious cargo an hour earlier, but there had been some very enjoyable distractions to keep them occupied in the meantime.

"Where... urk... where are we going?" asked the long, lean and incredibly defined ponyboy on the left whose name Cindy couldn't quite remember. It started with a D, she knew that, but anything beyond was pure guesswork. "Are there... uhm... tents over this way?"

"Tents? Why, what did you have planned that involved laying down where people can't see us?" Cindy giggled, smacking the equine's rump.

"I... uhm... well, I thought we were getting along-"

"Oh, don't ruin the moment," said the figure to Cindy's right, a plump but deliciously hourglassed raccoon girl. Their arms were linked together for safety and security, but Cindy was almost positive that the raccoon's free paw was groping her while they walked. "I'm sure Cindy has a plan. Right? Cindy always has a plan."

"Eh, I'm more the kind of person who tries to tell everyone after the fact that it was my plan all along," the buxom fox conceded. "Right now, I'm just... following a familiar voice."

"What?" asked the girl. Dammit, what was her name, Cindy thought. Marla?

_ _

"Who?" asked the boy. Dammit! Why am I so terrible with names! Damon?

_ _

"Just shut up and come with me, and try not to be so loud," Cindy gently scolded. "I'm relying on you two to keep me on the path!"

With D-boy keeping them away from the lights on the left and M-girl keeping them away from the lights on the right, they managed to make it nearly half a mile into the lush midnight forest. Bats spun and flapped overhead, squeaking and tweeting as they hunted; the panda clung tighter to Cindy's sideboob whenever one got too close. "Eep!"

"Oh, for crying out loud, they're bats! Didn't you ever go camping?"

"They don't have bats in dad's RV!"

"An RV is not camping!"

"I thought we had to be quiet?"

"That's why I'm whisper-shouting!" Cindy hissed. "Now knock it off!"

Fortunately (though for whom is up for debate), Cindy's night vision was excellent, and she placed a manicured fingertip against each of her companion's mouths when they rounded a grassy curve in the path. "OK, now seriously... hush up, and prepare to be amazed."

"Wh-" the panda started to ask before the vixen's painted claw pressed ever so slightly harder against her nose. "Nm," she nodded.

Cindy led them over to a raised bed of clover, and the three settled down as gently as they could. In the moonlight creeping through the clearing ahead they could just make out two figures, although one of them was only a vague blur somehow darker than the surrounding night. The other was a splash of bright fur and gaudy colors. As their eyes grew accustomed, the scene took on sharper contrast, and they could even hear snippets of distant conversation.

"I still don't think Red Alert is really very nice," Randolph was saying, settled comfortably onto his side. "Who calls you that?"

"Me, mostly," Amber sighed, sprawled out on her back, one paw happily stroking at the big badger's belly. Her other paw was unabashedly resting against the heavy bulge that her skirts were covering less and less. "Though I think this boi I dated at school coined it. Briefly dated, I should add. Well... OK, it was one date."

"Why only one?"

"I... don't tend to get many people willing to commit," Amber said evasively, her fingers tickling lower and lower down his stomach. "What about you? Anyone still calling you the Amazing Rando these days? Or moaning it, hopefuly?"

Randolph snorted. "Not so much."

"And I'll bet you think it's because your repulsive personality must be turning people off."

"Uh... I wasn't going to phrase it like that," the badger said softly, wrinkling his nose. "That wasn't very-"

"It's bullshit, is what it is."

"What?" Even sitting down, Randolph felt as though he just couldn't keep his mental equilibrium around the peculiar kitteh. "Which part?"

"You didn't have much luck with the girls back when you were in high school," Amber lectured patiently, her claws now plucking absently at the button fly of his jeans. "Now the new bigger, buffer badger still isn't having any luck with the girls. You changed what's outside, so clearly what's inside must be the problem. Right?"

"I... yeah..."

"Well, you're right, but you're wrong." Amber inhaled and stretched, shoulders and knees wriggling, happy to be off her feet for once. "You've made up your mind ahead of time. I'll bet when you try to talk to a girl, approaching carefully, looking her in the eyes, you've already played out the scenario where she politely shoots you down, right?"

"Uhm..."

"And I'll bet she doesn't SHOOT you down, it just sort of... fizzles, right?"

"Uh..."

"And you walk away, dejected, because you tried and you failed. Right?"

"Do you just want me to leave? You seem to be doing all right with this dialogue by yourself."

Amber giggled. "Don't get testy, big boy," she purred, shifting her weight a little closer and resting her paw fully against the upper slope of what was a very healthy bulge straining at his jeans. Randolph inhaled so sharply she thought she heard his ears whistle. "I'm nearly done the evening's PowerPoint presentation. But I just want you to know that you're right, but you're wrong... for pretty much the same reason I was."

"Uhm... you don't exactly seem to be in the same boat as me," he protested. "Other than size-wise, I mean. Everyone here seems to know you! A hundred people called you by name while we were walking around, and I know most of them weren't even from your school, and you keep mentioning that you were on a show. You're... you're popular. It's easy for you."

The kitteh arched an eyebrow, smiling dangerously. "Oh, it's easy for me?" she asked. "Just because I'm a grrl? Just because I have these," she challenged, grabbing her chest and giving it a jiggle before rolling her hips and pressing her own bulges against his. "Or all this? No, this got me attention, same as your body did for you, but what I did with the attention, and what you do with the attention, is what matters."

"What... what did you do with the attention?"

"I perhaps went a little bit crazy," Amber conceded. "I went from being shy, standing in Cindy's shadow, to being a bit of an alpha bitch, to say nothing of more than a little dommy. I chased that attention like a moth after a flame. You went a... slightly different route. You waited for the attention to change you, or waited for the attention to change how everyone treated you... but it's not going to."

Randolph coughed, placing one of his hands over hers where she was rhythmically stroking the front of his pants. "It's changing how SOME people treat me..."

"Oh, this? No, I treat everyone like this. Here, one sec."

"Wha-"

Though he easily outmassed her by double, Amber pressed against his shoulder and tipped him onto his back as though he were a fuzzy black throw pillow. In a flash she was straddling one of his thighs, the worryingly dense weight of her sac pressing against his own, and his jeans were mysteriously unbuttoned. "You know, it's rare for a boy to be in this sort of position with me."

Randolph swallowed, unsure of what exactly to do with his hands. "Position?"

"You know... face up." The look on his face, she decided, would keep her warm all through the summer. Her paws sought to slip down the front of his pants, but they were so tight he must have bought them before he'd finished growing. She managed to get one, sliding against what felt like silk boxers, while her other tugged the waist down bit by bit. "And I certainly haven't been with one needing two hands. Mmmm..."

The badger's breathing was shallow. His bared teeth glinted in the moonlight. She could hear his claws scrabbling at the soft earth. This is just a tragedy, she thought, waiting all this time only to end up with Amber as your first big night out! Oh well... at least everything feels like it's working the way it's supposed to. "Are you all right?" she asked sweetly, squeezing the base of a steadily-expanding column of soft, supple flesh.

"Yuh," he managed, bringing his hands around to cup her knees, stroking the safe outer portions of her thighs. "You... wow."

"See, this is your problem, right here," Amber sighed, yanking his pants down several more inches and revealing most of his bright purple boxers. "On some level, you still think that we're at the stage of introductory flirting where you can move too fast and scare me off, and don't get me wrong, yes means yes and no means no... but I think you can take this as a LITTLE sign that you can touch more than just my knees."

Her paws paused and she tilted her head meaningfully, wondering if she should make little tick-tock noises with her tongue.

Randolph, clearly working against his instincts, allowed his own fingers to wander up to her hips. The pressure changed noticeably, Amber was pleased to discover, those tentative fingertips gradually becoming more forceful, exploring with more confidence. She shivered as one hefty paw caressed her tush, the oh-so-sensitive base of her tail twitching violently.

"See?" she murmured, arching her back and extending her claws the tiniest bit. "There's a little give, and a little take. Give, and take... give, and take..."

It was taking a sizeable amount of her focus to keep her own body under control. The tingling just behind her hefty kitmakers had become an insistent burning, and she could feel her pulse pounding between her thighs like a ringing bell, but her panties remained intact. Let's see how long I can keep him from panicking... and here I thought badgers didn't get nervous about anything!

_ _

"Don't take this as a sign that you're doing anything wrong, but either I move my leg or we ruin a perfectly good pair of pants."

"Mmmrrr?" Randolph moaned, turning to a whimper of disappointment when Amber suddenly vanished from his lap. It was only then that he noticed that the weight of the voluptuous kitteh had been masking quite the uncomfortable cramp. He moved to sit up, but that just made the awkward bending sensation worse. "What... ow!"

"Yeah, that's a common issue," Amber giggled, "especially when you dress to show off. I can give you some pointers for positioning later, but for now I think we'll just... solve this the old fashioned way."

"How-"

It seemed Randolph was destined never to complete a sentence in her presence. Amber dug her fingers into the pockets of his jeans, took a deep breath, and yanked with all of her might. The sound that filled the night reminded her of shovelling the show out of her driveway, the soft and smooth and somehow heavy noise of reluctant friction. The now empty pants fluttered off into the darkness, and Randolph slumped against the grass with a gasp of relief.

"Now... doesn't that feel better?" Amber whispered, extending a paw.

"Yes, that... oh... oh..."

_ _

He'd seen himself naked hundreds of times, of course, even when aroused... perhaps especially when aroused. It had become a slightly shameful hobby to compare himself to the bodies of those fellas online that always seemed to move through life so effortlessly. This position, flat on his back, was even more familiar; many was the lonely night he'd pawed himself gently to sleep, keeping himself on the edge of climax to ensure sweet, sweet dreams.

But this was no dream, and he was most definitely not alone.

"Me-yow," Amber remarked, placing two fingers at the very base of his shaft and slowly walking them up, up, and up. "I can see why you wouldn't be looking for someone to share this with. Heck, I'm surprised you even left the house," she added with a juvenile snicker, her fingers finally stepping from the underside of his broad, heavy glans to the tip of his nose. With trembling regularity he continued to harden, each little surge adding another fraction of an inch to what had to be three extremely solid feet of inky black flesh.

Randolph glanced down and smiled bashfully, brushing his cheek against the head of his cock and causing it to jerk like a springboard. "I... hope you don't think I went overboard," he rumbled. "The treatments were for a six-month course, but I managed to convince him to give me one more refill by postponing my start date..."

Amber licked her lips, leaned over and pressed her breasts against his girth, slipping one leg between his once again. "Not at all," she breathed, one paw dancing down to cup his silk-covered testes, each heavy orb as large as her head and filling out deliciously fuller. "I love it when someone knows what they want, and go get it."

The badger swallowed nervously, his sheathless endowment growing almost painfully taut as it stretched up past his eyes. "That's what I said," he managed with a chuckle, wrapping his arms around Amber to steady her. "I always thought... you know, growing up... this is what I SHOULD look like..."

"I'm sure internet porn had nothing to do with it," the kitteh drawled, lapping her tongue up the most sensitive portions of her latest lover, enjoying the way the thumb-thick blood vessels strained and bulged wherever she explored. Randolph's breathing put her in mind of one of those old-fashioned steam trains valiantly struggling up a hill. "Careful, big fella, you're going to blow a valve."

"I'mfinepleasekeepdoingthat," he managed to squeeze out through clenched teeth, his fingers digging harder into her hips, pulling her tighter against him.

"Hey, Mikey, I think he likes it," Amber whispered, writhing snake-like up his body, removing his shirt as she inched north. "You must be a very popular nurse..."

He lifted his shoulders, and soon his shirt floated off into the night to join his pants. "I try to... dress down, when I'm on shift."

"Does that work?"

"No."

"Good. Be yourself," she giggled, planting little kisses around his impressively wide crown. Amber wasn't sure even she was quite this thick while at a similar length, and felt a strange jolt of competitiveness. Whoa, down, grrl! You finally meet ONE boy bigger than you and you wanna whip it out?! Well... of course you do, but for different reasons...

"I guess you're used to a... similar situation," he teased, his paws meandering from her hips down and around to her pink-clad swells. "Hardly seen any grrls as big as you, except for online..."

"Yeah, online," Amber purred, closing her eyes and chewing her lip as he explored. She pressed her wet little nose to the narrow valley of skin just behind his slit, gripping his neck and shoulder and grinding her body against his. "But that doesn't count, right?"

"Right..." he yipped, twisting with pleasure while trying not to dislodge the affectionate feline.

"I bet you wished all the girls would be like this," she continued, nuzzling her way around the side until she could press her lips to Randolph's, giving him his first proper kiss of the evening. The touch of his paws against her sac was driving her mad, but still she was keeping a lid on things. I'm getting so good at this! Yay! I get a medal! "Throwing themselves wantonly at you, you big hunk of throbbing man-meat, you..."

"Now you start making fun of me again?" the badger pouted, moving his hands abashedly up to her back. "Look, I... I didn't..."

Amber laughed. "I know, silly, I know. You thought it would be easier, you thought the fairer sex might make more of an effort to reach YOU, rather than you having to pursue THEM, but... well, ok, some will totally do that. But not all of them. Sometimes you still need to chase them until they catch you."

Randolph's lips moved while he parsed that. "And did you?"

"Did I what?"

"Catch me?"

Amber grinned and nipped at the side of his glans. "Maybe... but you weren't really chasing ME, exactly. I just happened to be a familiar set of gonads at a beach party. Speaking of which you'd better put your paws back down there before I kick you."

In a flash he was cradling and caressing her balls once more, eliciting a contented purr. "Sorry," he chuckled. "You.... make me nervous."

"I get that a lot." Amber pressed her paws against his chest and pushed, straddling the bulky badger and staring down at him. He was quite the sight, she had to admit, and definitely had the sort of body that the more size-oriented porn afficionados might bookmark. She licked her lips, enjoying the taste of him, and dragged her claws casually along his tummy. "I hope you're not all... uptight about herms."

"No!" he said quickly, starting to sit up but finding himself shoved back down rather easily. "Not that, you know, I've really had a lot of... opportunity."

"You might get a lifetime's worth of opportunity tonight, honey badger," the kitteh leered, sliding her paws down his shaft, across her bulge and up her body. "But first I'm going to be a little selfish."

"S-selfish?" he asked, stroking her straining skirt and wondering if she was actually maybe just a little bit bigger than he was.

Amber scooted back, careful not to bring her full weight onto his very swollen sac, and angled Randolph's cock until it was standing straight up between them. Both paws together had a hard time reaching around it, and with every tiny motion she made it twitched and spasmed and hardened still further. "Remind me to send your doctor a thank you note," she winked, cradling it to her chest as though slow-dancing with it.

"He s-says he gets a f-few of those a month..." Randolph gasped, wondering just how long he was going to be able to last with such a perfect creature quite literally in his lap. "Wh-"

In a single motion Amber's neon pink shirt was off, the surprisingly small swatch of fabric twirling around her finger like a lasso. "Yee haw," she drawled, bouncing once for his benefit. Constantly comparing herself to Cindy had given Amber a slightly skewed perception of her proportions, but the look of terrified desire in his eyes reassured her. She cupped her breasts and leaned forwards, pushing against the underside of his shaft. "Sorry, it was just getting awfully hot out here."

"Y-yeah... hot..."

"Cat got your tongue, Rando?"

"N-no..."

"Do you want me to?" Amber slid against him, tiny-clawed fingers dancing everywhere, until she was snuggled up against his side. "I don't believe it, now my panties are chafing me. Would you like to help me out of them?"

Randolph's mouth opened, his jaw moved, his lips seemed to be trying to form syllables, but when nothing came out he settled for vigorous nodding. Amber rolled onto her back, arms splayed in what she hoped was a sexy, sensual, seductive pose.

He might be a beginner but she had to admit his hands were steady, his moves gentle. His fingers tucked into her skirts, pulling them down along with her stretched-out undies. She hadn't expected much from her learning Lothario but when he started planting little kisses against her belly while he worked she shivered and purred substantially louder.

The waistband slipped down past the cuff of her straining sheath, and his kisses travelled downwards to follow. Like a blind man struggling to read a menu in braille his paws roamed everywhere, trying to get everything past her sac without pinching anything. She couldn't blame him: her waist was considerably smaller than that particular part of her body. "Just pull," she whispered, twisting her paw into his hair. "You won't break me..."

He nodded obediently and hauled once, everything slipping down to knee height in a single windy whoosh of satin on fur. She wriggled and kicked her legs, and soon everything was gone. Well, everything from her, at least... a quick glance down confirmed Randolph was still wearing his purple boxers. Not that they were keeping much covered anymore, she smiled.

His muzzle brushed against the pristine white fur between her thighs, his cheek pressed against the burgundy velvet of her sheath, and her entire body spasmed once so hard she could hear something in his neck go 'pop'. "Sorry!" she gasped. "It... it just..."

"Shhhh," Randolph whispered, nuzzling a little lower. "I can take more than that."

"Oh, ye gods, I hope so."

"What?"

"Nothing. Ignore me."

"Kinda hard," he chuckled.

"I've noticed," she replied, her fingers wandering from his hair to where the tip of his tremendous shaft was nearly even with his ears.

"Are... are you... am I, uhm..." Randolph faltered, all of his attentions still focused entirely below her hips, and for a moment Amber was confused.

With a soft 'oh!' of comprehension, she carefully guided his paw to the still-inflating curve of her sheath, where he felt a small, steel-hard obstruction. "Safety first," she murmured, while Randolph explored the cock ring. "Things tend to... progress a little fast for me."

The badger nodded, and Amber writhed when his tongue stroked the painfully turgid flesh around the ring. "I hope we can take this off later."

"Only if you're... good," Amber whimpered, chewing on her other paw to keep from crying out. Fuck, he's already pretty damn good! No-one ever goes this slow with me...

_ _

"I was hoping to be a LITTLE bad..."

"In that case, you're the worst. Don't stop."

Her legs parted, and for once it wasn't to give her balls more room. They were still filling up; no amount of self control could completely shut off THAT part of her anatomy. They were just expanding slower than she could remember at any other point in the last year. This self-control thing is handy, even if it's DRIVING ME INSANE RIGHT NOW, she thought as the badger's muzzle explored the sloshing swells with considerable interest.

A paw slipped beneath her knee and lifted, and she had just enough time to cram her hand completely into her maw before Randolph's nose scooted beneath her sac, his tongue lapping at her feminine folds. Her moans were as muffled as she could manage but she was still pretty sure ever bat within half a mile was flapping for their lives.

Amber arched her back and dug her toes into the soft, grassy earth, trying to give him a better angle. The last person stupid enough to do this nearly had her house destroyed, so thank heavens we're outsideOHFUCKYESRIGHTTHERERIGHTTHERERIGHTTHERE-

_ _

Her free paw continued to stroke the top of Randolph's head, but it was an effort not to use her full strength to just guide him through sheer brute force. She couldn't see him, not tucked down beneath her hermness the way he was, but she could feel his stubby little ears tickling her thighs, his warm wet nose against the incredibly sensitive little patch of furless skin between her sac and labia. His tongue explored, parting, caressing, retreating, only to appear a little higher, a little lower, a little deeper.

She thought for a second he was growling now, but it was her balls surging noticeably with desire, their own flow far exceeding her pussy's wetness and weighing much more noticeably against Randolph's head. The sheath ring was pinching painfully now, her sheath swollen so grandly she could see the veins twitching and shifting just below the surface. The urge to pounce on him, to show him what she could really do and hilt him and knot him and do unspeakable things to his insides was maddening, and all it would take would be a little flip of the tiny chrome catch on the side-

No. No! For once... for once, this isn't about me. At least not ONLY about me...

Feeling a little more in control, she stopped chewing on her fingers and took a breath. "I... I think... maybe..."

Randolph's paws slipped around to grip her rump, digging deliciously in and pulling her harder against his muzzle. She clenched her teeth and bore down, a jolt of electricity drawing a strangled scream from somewhere inside, and it took several more seconds for her to remember what she'd been talking about.

Oh, fuck it... here's me giving him this GREAT speech about honesty and bravery and all that and now I'm the one being all tentative and shit. Dammit! Red Alert Amber can use her powers for GOOD!

_ _

With his body between her legs it was easy for her to plant a footpaw against his hips and push, rolling onto her side and freeing herself from the ecstasy of his efforts. His head popped up, his eyes wide and apologetic, making a curious sound in the back of his throat as he licked his lips. "Was that-"

"That was amazing... for starters," Amber giggled drunkenly, only partially due to the alcohol. "And we are... definitely... going to have some more to say about that... but I'm not going to last much longer..."

"Then what-"

Amber was facing away from him but his eyes were still even with the base of her tail, which lifted up invitingly. Randolph inhaled sharply and his cock bumped against the curve of her butt. In his efforts to please, he had nearly forgotten about his own... situation.

"Give and take," Amber coaxed, wriggling into position. "Give... and take..."

On all fours, she could hear Randolph rising to his knees behind her. So this is what they all felt like, she mused, her hermness forming a red-hot ball of lead pressed against her belly. Although maybe they had it even worse, since they weren't used to something so... big...

_ _

The broad crown of his shaft touched her lips and she purred like a diesel engine, rolling her hips back against him. "I might be too big," he moaned hesitantly, pressing forwards with a surgeon's care.

"Trust me, if I'm not, you're not," Amber grunted, pushing back harder.

"You're not that big-"

"Now is not the time to say something like that to someone like me!"

"S-"

"And don't say sorry! Just... nnnghhh... slow but hard, all right? Slow... but hard."

_ _

She knew there was a small chance he might have already mentally talked himself out of going any further, as she'd done to herself countless times before her final year of school, but when he gripped her hips there was a decisive strength that quite pleasurably raised the hackles on her neck.

"Slow and haaaa_AAAAUGH_!"

Fireworks went off behind her eyes when he pushed, and for an instant she thought something had come loose somewhere. This wasn't her first time, but it was most definitely the first with someone even approaching her size. Jelena had been quite substantial, no doubt about it, more herm than most people knew what to do with, but Randolph was another beast altogether.

And yet, he's me on a cold day getting out of a cold pool. What does that say about me?

_ _

Her legs twitched and vibrated, her toes unable to grasp anything for purchase, but thankfully they didn't need to. Randolph's hands were strong and sure, and helped to reassure her that her hips were going to spring back of their own accord eventually. He drove forwards, definitely taking her words to heart, his moans mingling with her half-choked shrieks of lust.

She felt so full already, but she was nothing if not selfish and over-eager. She dug her fingers into the ground, braced herself, and pushed backwards, falling into a complementary rhythm with the big badger.

"Mmmmmmm," she groaned, tossing her head back and staring at him over her shoulder, eyes wide and not entirely focused in the same direction. "Good boy."

Randolph was hunched over, alternating between a clench-eyed grimace and a glassy-eyed stare of amazement. "You feel... amazing," he managed, his chest heaving. It was clear that he'd done quite a bit of work in the gym on his shoulders, and Amber was forever grateful for his foresight.

"That's only halfway," she leered, freeing one paw to touch her distended belly.

"Are you sure?" He caressed the small of her back, his paws moving to the sudden widening of her hips, around her rump and to where ebon badger flesh was forcibly stretching her moist femininity.

Amber laughed. "You can't even know how many times I've said those three words... yes, I'm sure."

As he inched his way closer, each slow, hard buck filling her more completely, he was able to reach more of her with his hands. He stroked her flanks, gasping when he felt himself through the thinning fur of her tummy, and cupped the still-filling bulk of her sac. "Wow," he breathed, "you're quite the grrl!"

"We're braver and... mmmmm, stretchier than you might think," she crooned, feeling the badger-bulge forcing its way higher and higher, Randolph's legs now between her own and his satin-covered balls bumping against her thighs with every thrust. "Whoof, you're not so bad yourself! I guess I'm more of a size queen than I thought..."

Randolph's arms encircled her body and she howled with bliss as she was pulled upright, her back pressed against his powerful chest and his rock-hard shaft angling steeply away from her, grinding and stimulating her insides in ways she'd never imagined. When her eyes uncrossed she stared in frank amazement at the cream-and-gold outline of his maleness, wondering if this was similar to what her lovers experienced in the moments before she climaxed.

One paw moved up, cradling and gently kneading her breasts while the other scooted south to explore her desperately overfilled sheath. "Good gods," he growled into her ear, nuzzling her from behind. "Are you bigger than me?"

"Ye-e-es..." Amber whined, writhing in his grip. "I'm a... bit of a... grower..."

"A bit?" he grinned, leaning back a little further and nearly lifting her off the ground just with his girth. She gasped and her arms flew out, one reaching back to cling at his neck and the other gripping the paw stroking her sheath. "I can't wait."

"You'll... regret... saying... that..."

"I'm not like most boys."

"You all... say that..."

Randolph's confidence shook momentarily, but he chalked it up to Amber's no doubt unsatisfying experiences. A grrl that beautiful, that perfect, that big... probably didn't attract the sort of person willing to let her really satisfy herself. Don't worry, he thought smugly, you can do whatever you want to me. You deserve it.

_ _

He doesn't deserve what I'm going to do to him, Amber thought, but it's probably a good experience. If he really likes herms, he's gotta know we're out there...

_ _

Amber was beyond words now, simply meowing and yipping in time with his driving thrusts. Her body rose and fell, wrapped around him so tightly that he could barely withdraw a hands width of shaft before plunging into her once more, but it was more than enough. Bit by bit she could feel him reaching his ultimate size, blood vessels somehow handling the increased capacity, and she swooned when his urethra began to engorge within her.

Oh, fuck, I know THAT feeling... though not usually from this side!

_ _

"Come... on..." she mewled, hoisting herself higher and dropping down harder onto him. "Mmmmf... harder..."

The badger was all too happy to obey, panting against her neck as he struggled to hilt himself in the petite kitteh. "I've... I've never... uhm..."

"Shhh, I know," she huffed, patting him reassuringly through her own thinning bellyfur. "Just... just do what feels good..."

"That's... what I'm... doing!" he giggled hoarsely, shudders wracking his body. "Just trying... not to... finish... too fast!"

Amber gurgled, wondering if she should be feeling this kind of pressure against her lungs. "That is... a very admirable trait... to most people," she panted, "but I need you... to finish... before I explode..."

"Really?"

"It's a... hyper thing... please..." She was almost positive she could hear her cuff ring deforming under the pressure, and if she unsheathed now she doubted she was ever going to get to return the favor to the big beautiful badger.

"In that case... I don't feel bad... because I can't... stop..." he quavered, hugging Amber so hard that he seemed to be holding onto her for dear life and not the other way around.

Amber's head lolled back against Randolph's chest and she closed her eyes, allowing herself to be swept away. She didn't need to be in charge, she didn't need to be in control, and she certainly didn't need to be holding on for dear life or reassuring a panicking fur... the predatory side of her personality was confused, and the rarely-seen submissive aspect was screaming with delight.

"Don't stop," she moaned, digging her claws into the fuzzy condom that her belly had become and dragging them down to her hips.

Randolph's reaction was immediate and electric, his maw clamping down on her neck and his paws digging into her thighs as he thrust forward one final time. She could feel his balls tightening and swelling just below her own, and she wailed unabashedly into the night as his cock swelled enormously thicker to accommodate. The more her hands were forced apart, the more Amber's own passions grew. Oh, you are SO in for it... if I can move after this...

_ _

She hung on the precipice for what seemed like eternity, and she began to wonder if maybe she had clamped down too tightly and she was cutting him off. She'd experienced that before, though it was usually a result of her being too BIG than they being too tight, although she supposed the two were linked... and in the end her physiology always defeated any obstacle.

The tight ripple of flesh moving up her belly proved that good things came to those who wait.

At last Randolph truly roared, all of his reluctance banished. His orgasm was unlike anything he'd experienced in the privacy of his room, or the shower, or more recently in the spongebath stalls at the hospital with the vibrating massage heads. Those were like road flares compared to the volcano erupting within Amber. The skin-tight feline wrapping around his shaft swelled and ballooned, her paws sinking into the expanding sloshing rondure as he pumped, slow and hard, again and again and again. It pushed up against her breasts and pushed down against her sheath, and bit by bit squeezed against her sides.

"Fuck... yes... fuck... yes..." she crooned, arms and legs cradling her new tummy.

The growing sphere of kitteh began to slow when it reached her thighs, and she sighed luxuriantly as her cleavage rose to press lovingly against her muzzle. Randolph's gnarls of longing echoed with the wet gurgling sounds coming from Amber's body as it swayed back and forth like the tides. He twitched hard inside her, seemed like he would never stop, but his flow had ceased.

Amber exhaled slowly, the pressure within fondling every inch of her, and even the tiniest motions she made seemed to amplify the rippling, intimate touches. Her paws played across her over-inflated figure. "Wow," she murred. "And here I thought you were all... talk."

Randolph sagged against her, and for a moment his weight pushed Amber's muzzle against her belly. Her muffled giggles and gentle swats against his hip drew him out of his stupor and he leaned back. "S-sorry," he whispered, licking her ear weakly. "I didn't... I never..."

"Shhh, shhh, it's fine, it's fi-i-ine," Amber chided, wiggling against and around him as best she could. "That's kind of how it goes for... people like us. The first time with someone is always... surprising."

"Was it like this... your first time?"

Amber thought back to that second floor bathroom, that hot steamy shower with the first boy to see her naked. He had been so tall and so strong, a powerful equine statue, football player and all around high school alpha. She could hear the shower walls cracking, hear the tiles splitting as he swelled, and still she couldn't stop, didn't know if she wanted to stop...

"It was something like this," she murmured, twisting her neck around to plant a kiss on Randolph's muzzle. "But I should warn you I've come a long way since then..."

"Mmmm, that sounds competitive."

Amber opened her mouth to counter with something sharp and witty and drenched in erotic subtext, but she stopped herself. "No," she breathed.

Randolph blinked, brows drawn together. "No?"

"Not that kind of no, not 'NO' no, just..." She inhaled, her bosom rising once more to touch her chin, and she chuckled ruefully. "For once, I think it's time a boy really knew what he was dealing with."

"I'd love to find out," he grinned.

"First... first, I have some things I think you should watch."

He glanced down and flexed, jostling Amber from within. "I think that might have to wait."

"No," Amber repeated. "CINDY!"

Randolph blinked, more confused than ever. "What-"

His head flew up when he heard a high, feminine voice in the distance. "WHO'S CINDY?"

"DAMMIT, CINDY, I KNOW YOU'RE THERE!"

"NO YOU DON'T!"

"I CAN SMELL YOUR PERFUME!"

"NO YOU... SHUT UP!"

"YOU SHUT UP AND BRING ME MY PHONE!"

"I DON'T HAVE YOUR PHONE!"

"CHECK YOUR TITS!"

Randolph's cheeks burned, wondering just how much of an audience they had. "Is Cindy a... friend of yours?"

"You might say that," Amber snerked. "I left my phone with her for safe keeping."

"HEY, YOU'RE RIGHT!" came the voice from the darkness. "ONE SECOND, I'LL... no, get your hands out of there, I need to stand up... I'LL BE RIGHT THERE."

"What exactly are we about to watch?" Randolph quavered, suddenly feeling very naked.

"Just a little web show. It airs on Saturdays. It'll be right up your alley," she mused, crossing her arms somewhat uselessly across her breasts as a staggeringly top-heavy figure approached out of the night. "Oh, and... Randolph, this is Cindy. Cindy, Randolph."

"Hi!"

"... charmed."

---

The late summer sun beat down, the world seeming to warp around them in the heat. The expansive cedar porch was shaded by nearby cherry trees, but the lazy breeze still pushed palpably against everyone's fur, trying to herd them back inside where it was safe.

Amber sipped her pink lemonade, icy droplets beading on her whiskers. The conversation had petered out several minutes before, and now everyone was just awkwardly postponing the inevitable. "Well," she murmured, stroking Randolph's palm with her other paw.

"Yeah," he nodded, giving her a squeeze.

Liam and Sierra O'Malley glanced at eachother and sighed, the much smaller kitteh leaning against the doberman's barrel chest. She was sitting in his lap, which was quite a bit larger than any of the other deck chairs, and as always he'd brought his own chair with him. Cindy's vulpine parents, who were remarkably normal-looking considering their daughter, sat to either side of the buxom fox. Everyone held a drink of some sort, and the remains of the delicious barbecue lay scattered around the immense picnic table between them all.

Cindy plucked at her technically-modest yellow t-shirt, stretched to near-transparency around her bust. "Yeah," she hemmed, glancing up at the sun for the hundredth time as though trying to determine the hour.

Amber supposed the whole summer had been leading up to this moment. The Sunday after the bush party had been a little surreal, dragging herself home with a hangover and a serious double case of wobbly knees and blue balls. Randolph had been noble and gallant to the bitter end by walking her to her door, and had not been able to escape without meeting Amber's parents, something that no boy should have to do on three hours sleep. Of course, Sierra recognized him from the hospital and Liam's baseline respect ticked up several notches at the words 'pre-med', but he'd still been lucky to escape.

Graduation rehearsals and pre-rehearsals and family lunches and ceremonies seemed to fill up the entire next week. Cindy hadn't kept her promise to flash the audience during her diploma acceptance, but only on a technicality; rather than buck nudity, she'd instead settled on an incredibly expensive fuschia one-piece corseted teddy out of deference to the children and elderly. It took so long for the applause to die down that some of the students who hadn't yet received their papers got bored and left.

After that...

Amber had planned to spend the first half of July just relaxing and having fun, but those two weeks had lingered into three and then four. She had become a fixture at the beach, or as much of a beach as Circe generally had to offer. When not splayed out on the sand doing as blessedly little as felinely possible, she was curled up in her room with a good book, or binge-watching a new Webflicks series, or idly fiddling around with her web show's format and control panel. Nothing was going live yet, and she wasn't sure when it would truly be back 'on the air', but there were vague plans forming in the back of her mind. Vague, scary plans.

Randolph's hours were crazy between alternating day and night shifts and his summer upgrade and makeup courses, but she was absolutely dedicated to making sure she was available whenever he was free. She even became passing friends with the various shift-working duty nurses at the hospital while waiting for him to be free, and the all-night coffee shop next door saw them with such frequency they were often just asked if they wanted 'their table'.

After that, Amber was pleased to discover that Randolph's duplex had a very large open-plan living room, and moving the furniture to various other corners of the unit allowed the two of them sufficient room to relax without having to worry too too much. He had become quite the fan of her web show, watching all of the recorded episodes in a single sitting that left him sweaty and shaking, and was only too happy to discover that Amber had not been lying about perhaps, just maybe, being a little bigger than he was.

It was no wonder neither of them particularly wanted July to end.

When August rolled around, however, she finally had to force herself to start going through her third-string back-up college applications and it was no surprise when all of them came back with letters of acceptance, sometimes in the same day. Randolph helped her go through them all, showing her how to rank the various colleges by accessibility, student satisfaction scores, post-graduate employment statistics and so forth. In the end she settled for the UFC campus that was only half a mile from where Cindy would be majoring in Communications at Magistral City University and three miles from where Randolph would be advancing from pre-pre-med to pre-med at Kwantlen. Her Fall schedule looked like a mish-mash of fine arts, computer science and business management courses that had no application towards any graduate program, but she was fine with that.

Her parents less so, but since Amber ended up paying for everything herself, they respectfully kept their comments to a minimum.

And now, in the final days of August, the O'Malley and Shasta families (with special guest Randolph Manitoba) were gathered for what might be the last backyard get-together for quite some time.

"We'll be home for Crimbo," Cindy piped up. "At the very least! I mean, we're not THAT far away... ooh, or you might come to the City for New Years!"

Amber squeezed her eyes shut, not sure if she was prepared to handle another big city New Years party. "I think we'll come home."

"Awww!"

"What 'aww'? It was your idea two seconds ago!"

"Shut up!"

"And to think you'll be living together," Liam rumbled, only barely beating Randolph to the punch. "I assume your tenant insurance is properly... comprehensive?"

Thanks, dad, REAL subtle, Amber thought grumpily, adjusting her skirts. I'm downright petite right now so you can shut the hell up! "Yes, everything up to and including swarms of bees rising out of giant cracks in the Earth."

"How much was that?"

"Four bucks extra a year."

"Good," the massive canine nodded. "Worth it."

Randolph's eyes swept back and forth between the fearsome doberman and his gorgeous feline daughter, still not entirely sure when the older O'Malley was kidding. In fact, he still wasn't entirely certain exactly what Liam's profession was, other than a few vague hints from Amber. "Is he being funny?" he whispered into her ear, trying to disguise it by taking a sip from his drink.

"I was," Liam rumbled.

The Shastas chuckled, a tiny chorus of foxy yips. "Oh, relax, I keep telling you he actually LIKES you. You're hardly under any surveillance anymore."

"What?"

Cindy stretched, and Amber rolled her eyes when the only person on the porch to take special notice of this was her mother, who was staring openly. "Any-hoo," Cindy piped, "we really... really probably do have to get going. I know I said that half an hour ago, but I probably really mean it this time."

"Yeah," Amber agreed.

"Yeah," Randolph nodded sadly.

"Yeah," Sierra echoed, still watching the front of Cindy's shirt going up and down.

Dammit, mom.

_ _

Amber had already endured two goodbye dinners with her folks, one at home and one at Cimo's, one of Circe's finest dining establishments. Then there were the farewell walks, the tearful spontaneous hugs from her mother and the damp-eyed, wordless nods and embraces from her father. Really, Amber had said her goodbyes a hundred times so far.

Even so, it was a little surprising when they only gave her the briefest of hugs and smiles and then stood back, allowing Randolph to escort her all the rest of way to Cindy's car. For several seconds they just stared anxiously at eachother, holding hands one moment, exploring their pockets the next.

"Don't they look sweet together?" Sierra whispered to Liam.

"Mmm."

"They say girls get out on their own and try to marry their fathers."

"That's horrible."

"Well, it's true! He kind of looks like you... in more way than one."

"Ergh," Liam winced. "I was never so...obvious."

"Are you a terrible liar," Sierra giggled, rubbing her elbow meaningfully against the front of the hyper doberman's slacks. "When I first saw you at that mixer, you were making a lot more of a spectacle of your jeans than that boy is right now."

"Was not."

"Was too. Now shut up and take a picture. I want to remember this."

Amber and Randolph weren't really able to stand toe to toe, and even with their bulges pressed together they still had to lean quite a bit to kiss. "I guess... this is it," she murmured, thumping her forehead against his chest.

"For a limited definition of 'it'," he sighed, inhaling the scent of her hair. "It was your idea-"

"I know, I know, don't remind me. We have the summer... and after that, it's..."

Randolph squeezed her shoulders. "It's best to go our separate ways," he finished for her, as he'd done a dozen times before. "You'll be going to a different school, I'll be in dorms and working even worse hours than I am now."

"We'll be in the same city-"

"-and we're both going to have a lot more going on than we have for the last two months," he explained, knowing full well this had all been her reasoning. "We're not going to forget we exist, or... what we had together."

Amber allowed her paws stray down to his hips, giving his butt a fond grope. "Maybe we can have it again, on... special occasions," she grinned.

"Special occasions," he nodded, blushing furiously and listening to Liam's phone click. "But... just take it easy. All right? We both will. We had fun. A lot of fun."

"Sorry about your couch."

"Worth it." With infinite reluctance, Randolph opened the passenger side door of Cindy's little red car. "I'll be up in a week, and we'll all meet up at Boiler's for drinks before commencement, so don't think this is goodbye forever."

"I know," Amber pouted. "Sure feels like it."

"It won't be. And no matter what happens... I'll still be able to see you every Saturday night, right?"

It was Amber's turn to blush. "It might take me a little bit to get the show up and running again."

"Take your time. You're worth it, and your show is worth it. It's... it's good for people."

"Jeez, you make it sound like I'm feeding orphans or something."

"Well, if you ever make TOO much money, you could do that." Randolph hugged her once more, and her clinging embrace around his midsection nearly took his breath away. "Whoa... whoa, easy there. You're... oof, stronger than me..."

The young hyper giggled and let go. "Just didn't want you to forget me."

"Like that would ever happen."

They held hands. They let go. They held hands again. They kissed. Amber was about to reach for his hands again when a pair of blunt claws pinched her rump on a very sensitive spot and she cried out in alarm, spinning to see Cindy already crammed into the passenger seat and grinning like an escaped criminal. "Yo, are we going or not? It's a five hour drive!"

Amber put one foot into the car, used it to boost herself up and wrapped her arms around Randolph's broad neck for one final kiss. "OK, I'm really going this time," she moaned into his ruff.

"Of course you are," he said gently, lowering her into the passenger seat. "One week. Boiler's. Be there."

"Try and stop me."

The little car, back seat and trunk loaded with bags and boxes until it seemed fit to burst, sputtered and zipped off into the late afternoon. Randolph shoved his paws into his pockets, smiled nervously at the grownups, and trotted off to his evening shift. Cindy's parents sighed and headed back into the house with very little fanfare; three of their kids had already gone off to college, and after Cindy there would be three more. It took Liam and Sierra quite a bit more time to accept the inevitable, and the eastern sky was fading to purple before they started for home.

... to be continued in 'Sex In The City', coming 2016.