Sweet Dream Kisses
By Tabby
rated: R
~~~~~~~~~~
Part 1
~~~~~
Her fingers entwined with his course bleached hair as he laid gentle kisses down between her breasts and over her flat stomach. She sucked in air sharply through clenched teeth as each kiss sent shivers of pure delight pulsating through her body.
His warm hands caressed her smooth golden hips as his sweet lips just barely grazed the crevasse where her leg connected to her torso.
A gaspy yipe escaped her pouty lips.
He smiled against her hot flesh, delighted with her delight. Turning his head just slightly, he blew softly, sending cool air across her most secretive of places. He almost lost his breath watching as those black curls waved slightly, responding to his wind.
She gasped, arching her back.
Quickly, he slid his hand underneath her lifted body, catching her with a firm hand at the small of her back. Holding her body against his own, he slide up, making sure flesh on flesh contact was never broken... anywhere between them. When he was once again level with those brilliant green eyes, he was shivering with desperate hunger.
Expertly he rubbed his thick, throbbing cock against her damp opening.
Her teeth clamped down on her lower lip, but not fast enough to hold back the whimper. Her hands grabbed at his shoulders as she tried to move against him.
But the hand at the small of her back held her in place.
Her beautiful green eyes closed tightly as every speck of her body felt as if it was on fire.
He laid gentle kisses on her eye lids before breathing against her nose "Open your eyes, Jessica. I want to see those mesmerizing emeralds."
To the thrill of them both, her lids fluttered up, revealing, once again, those irristable eyes, glistening with tears of pure joy. "Tom..." she gasped, but his mouth covered hers with a deep, possessing kiss.
So enthralled was she in the all consuming kiss that, when she felt him slip so perfect inside her, filling her tight body with his thick heat, it was simply finishing the dream.
~~~~~
With a cry, Knuckles shot upright in her bed. For what seemed forever, the world simply didn't exist beyond the whisps of the dream that still clung to her body and soul.
Then, as if the sun was slowly rising, lighting the world of her bedroom, her eyes began to focus on her surroundings. At first she was confused.
Instead of perfectly fitted silk sheets, she sat among a wad of crumpled cotton. Instead of holding her lover to her breasts, it was her thick, dow comforter. There was a heavy ache in her chest that just seemed to be getting worse, and worse...
"Knuckles? Hey, Boss Lady, answer the comm already!"
"What?" she gasped, her head jerking about, blindly looking. Seeing the comm beside her bed blinking and hearing Gage's voice shook her back to reality. With a sad, tired sigh, she swung her legs off the edge of the bed and tapped the comm. "Mornin', Gage." she answered her head bouncer on the other end behind the bar in the Club downstairs.
"'bout time.... and don't you mean afternoon?!"
"What?" Frowning, she glanced at the wall clock. Sure enough, it read 12-something. "Crap!" she cursed, jumping to her feet. Clicking the comm to hand-free mode, she began to run around the room, looking for her clothes. "I'm really sorry, Gage. The alarm mustn't have gone off."
"Knuckles, you don't use an alarm clock. You have a never fail internal alarm. You ALWAYS wake up by 8am... even when we're up 'til 4 in the morning closing shop." There was a pause before a concerned Gage asked "Are you feeling alright, Knuckles?"
Knuckles stopped cold... or, rather, hot. God, she could still feel his hands... "Alright doesn't quite fit the bill." she mumbled before running the tip of her tongue around her upper lip.
"Maybe you should stay put today. Curl up in front of the idiot box for some down time. I'll get one of the girls to bring up something to eat and bring Oddity down for the night. What do you say? Take a night to look after yourself."
With a heavy sigh, Knuckles dropped back down on her bed. "Can't. I'm doing that thing at the zoo today."
There was a disturbed silence. "Alrighty, but take it easy, okay?! Hey, and feel better."
Knuckles huffed, but let off replying. Instead she simply tapped the comm off. Laying back on the bed again, she stared out the skylights at the bright, clear blue sky of early noon... same color as his eyes she noticed.
"Crap." she growled at herself. "When did I get to the point of comparing the sky to his eyes? Comparing ANYTHING to his eyes?!"
She closed her eyes, feeling his lips brush across her belly.
Oh, yea... about then.
~~~~~~
Perfect Tommy yawned.
Buckaroo eyed him across the table. "Not been sleeping well?" he wondered.
Tommy blinked at him. "Huh?" was all he could muster.
The doctor smiled slightly. "While most people actually eat, you're inhaling your lunch."
The young man returned the smile. "Knuckles and I were chatting late." he offered for an explanation.
"Chatting?" Peggy chuckled. "The two of you actually chat?"
"No, they don't." Buckaroo answered. "Arguing once again. You could hear him smashing the keys on his keyboard all the way down the hall."
Perfect Tommy threw him a glare. "Well, if you'd let me use the hands- free after curfew...."
"Yea, and we'd hear you yelling at her instead. The two of you are like grade school children. She tosses pebbles at you. You tug on her pigtails... all to prove to yourselves that you really do not like each other." Peggy tossed a grape in her mouth.
Buckaroo leaned close to his wife. "That grade school stuff? Never bought it." he assured.
Peggy turned her head until she was nearly nose to nose with him. With an impossibly straight face she spat her grape out, bouncing it off his nose.
Closing his eyes, Buckaroo sighed. Turning, once more, back to his Cavalier, he opened his eyes and pointed out "At least your girl has pigtails to yank."
Perfect Tommy's jaw stiffened. "She isn't my girl!" he snapped. "I don't have a girl! I have no intention of ever having a girl! I'm free wheeling it. No attachments, no commitments, no girls."
Peggy smirked. "And girls everywhere fall in exasperation."
It was Peggy's turn to fall victim to the blue eyed glare of their Perfect Tommy.
With a mischievous grin, she popped another grape in her mouth and turned back to her husband.
Buckaroo quickly covered her mouth, while he turned to speak with Perfect Tommy. "You're gonna hyperventilate if you don't stop yawning so much. The only cure for yawning is sleep. Might consider trying it tonight."
"Yea, sure, anything you say, pop." Perfect Tommy managed through another yawn.
Buckaroo leaned across the table. "Sleep: good. Sleepy scientist that experiments with explosive materials: bad."
"Point." Perfect Tommy started to rise. "Sleep now then."
Peggy pulled Buckaroo's hand away. "No sleep now then. We go pick up Knuckles."
Reno Nevada, who had been walking pass their table, paused. Tilting his head to one side, he turned to Pecos who was beside him. "And you want to know how I became master of the english language in this place?"
~~~~~
"And this is Draco." Knuckles held her arm up in the air giving her osprey room to spread her great wings and give a very dramatic cry.
The children were properly impressed, leaning back and "oooh" and "aaaawe" and "wow" with all the enthusiasm of third graders.
Knuckles smiled. "And who knows what Draco is?" she asked, crouching down so Draco could eye these possible food sources up close and personal.
A little hand shot up.
"Yes?" Knuckles pointed to the little hand.
"Um.... a... I don't know... a bird." spoke up the little boy with an unusual amount of sarcasm for one so young.
Knuckles' smile never flickered. "What type of bird?" When no new hand shot up, she answered her own question: "Draco is an Osprey, also called a Fish Hawk."
"So, that's his allis?" asked the same boy.
Knuckles eyed the little fellow. "Gee, you know who you remind me of?"
Recognizing the signs, the teacher cleared her throat.
Knuckles glanced up at her sharply. "Aw, yes... " Remembering her audience were children, she turned back. "Well, some times Ospreys snag a fish or two from somewhere they're not supposed to and they cross state lines and change their names so the bird cops don't catch them." she explained.
"Is Batman a bird cop?" a little girl wondered.
"No. And who knows why?"
"That's what Robin's for." the first little boy quickly answered.
Knuckles grinned. "That would explain Robin, yes. How about a new topic? Who wants to guess how much Draco weighs?"
"Fifty pounds!" came a shouted answer.
"Oh!" Knuckles dropped her arm as if Draco was suddenly too heavy. "Boy, now if she weighed `that' much, she'd of broken my arm long ago!"
"Maybe you should get a guy to hold her for you." suggested the annoying boy. "Girls being week and all..."
Again, Knuckles maintained her smile, though it took every ounce of self control she had. "Who'd like to see Draco hunt?"
The teacher cleared her throat at a near hysterical pitch.
Perfect Tommy chuckled, dropping his head and shaking it.
Buckaroo glanced at him out of the corner of his eye. "And just who do you think he reminds her of?" he wondered with a grin.
"I know who he reminds `me' of." Peggy jabbed Perfect Tommy in the ribs before skipping pass the men and heading down the zoo path to where Knuckles was entertaining the school children at the Birds of Prey exhibit.
Buckaroo laughed and started after his wife.
Still shaking his head, Perfect Tommy looked up again and watched Knuckles as she held Draco up again, demonstrating how long the bird's wings were.
Tommy Boy stepped up beside him and rested her chin on his shoulder. When he turned his head to look at her, they were nearly nose to nose. "Penny for your thoughts." she offered.
"Really? A whole penny?"
She shrugged. "No. But I'll let you drive the hummer back to the Institute." she replied with a smirk.
Perfect Tommy huffed, grinning as her bangs rustled from his breath. He turned back to watch Knuckles.
Tommy Boy turned too, leaning up against him. "So?" she prompted.
"I don't know." PT sighed. "I mean, look at her!" He waved a hand down at the zoologist and her bird. "She pisses me off every minute together, yet I go crazy when she isn't around to piss me off. Yesterday she hunted down some bounty and shot him in the ass, hand cuffed him, and dragged him back to jail. Today, she's as gentle as a lamb, teaching school kids. Some freak combination of angry hell cat and soft, purring kitten." He turned and looked at his friend. "You wanna explain that to me? Explain her?" Again, he looked at Knuckles. "Wanna explain why I care?" he added almost under his breath.
"Gee... maybe you like her." When he snapped about to stare at her with wide eyes, she grinned, adding "Maybe like her a lot." She jabbed him in the ribs in the exact same spot Peggy had. "And, maybe, you should ask her." Wrapping her arm through his, she dragged him down to the topic of their conversation.
"Draco has fantastic eyes." Knuckles was explaining. "She could see you from way, way up there." She pointed, looking up. When she started to drop her eyes she spotted the Hong Kong Cavaliers who had gathered at the edge of the exhibit just behind the children. "Now, here's an interesting species. And who can tell me who they are?" she asked, waving a hand in their direction.
The third graders spun about. For half a breath, they frowned. But then the annoying one answered "Well, duh! That's Buckaroo Banzai and the Hong Kong Cavaliers."
The teacher squealed, slapping her hands over her face.
It was all the encouragement needed. The children swarmed forward, practically tackling the band.
Knuckles smiled, careful to hold Draco high enough that she didn't get startled into attacking any of the quick moving children. She used the distraction to get the bird back to her habitat. After Draco was put away, Knuckles turned back and clapped her hands. "Alrighty, kids. Time to go find your bus and return to the wilds of the public school system."
Waving their good byes, the children, leading their star-stunned teacher, headed back up the trail.
As the last one passed Perfect Tommy, he snatched the kid up by the shoulder.
"Hey!" snapped the boy, the same annoying one that had pestered Knuckles. "What? Bad hair day or something?"
Perfect Tommy held out his hand. "Give it up."
"Give up what?"
"Um, Perfect Tommy..." Rawhide started.
"Kid, if the fact that I have a very, `very' big gun doesn't bother you, I happen to know for a fact that Draco, there, happens to love little pick pocketing children... if you get my drift." Perfect Tommy informed him. He wiggled his fingers, reminding the boy of his empty hand.
With a sigh, the boy smacked Buckaroo's wallet in his hand.
Buckaroo frowned.
"And?" Perfect Tommy prompted.
With a grunt, the boy handed over two go-phones, a compact disc recorder of Reno's, and Peggy's cute teddybear key chain.
"Thank you. Get lost." Perfect Tommy dropped him and sent him on his way.
"Yea... well, I still think you're having a bad hair day!" the kid yelled back as he hurried after his fellow students.
"And I still have a very big gun!" Perfect Tommy called over his shoulder.
"See?" Buckaroo said to Rawhide as he took his wallet back. "It pays to have a criminal in the midst."
Rawhide shook his head, taking back his go-phone. "Knuckles, better start a file on that one."
"Which one? The kid? Or Tom?" the girl responded with smile. She glanced around at the Cavaliers, before turning to an open lock box beside Draco's cage. Taking out the clip board, she made a few notes, while she asked "So, I know I asked for a ride... but the entire population of the Institute?"
Perfect Tommy chuckled. "How many Cavaliers does it take to drive a Hummer?"
Ignoring him, Tommy Boy stuck out her hand. "Keys to your truck please."
"My truck?" Knuckles repeated, unsure of the reasoning. Returning the clipboard and locking the box, she turned to look at her.
"Truck... if that's what you want to call it." Rawhide nodded. "It is about time you take advantage of our wide range of expertise and let Tommy Boy fix your truck, once and for all."
Knuckles frowned. "You're not going to shoot it, are you?"
"No." Tommy Boy smiled. "Though, that was my first suggestion."
"Here's the run down." Rawhide put an arm around Knuckles' shoulders. "Fact one: you are a valuable member of our security team. We rely on you. Fact two: your truck breaks down every ten minutes, either because some bounty shot it, you shot it, used it as a weapon to slam into something explosive, used it to run through something not very run-thoughable, blew it up yourself, or simply because it is an ancient piece of junk rusting away and polluting our planet. Those two facts don't work well together. And that is a problem."
Tommy Boy smiled. "We intend to fix the problem. Keys, please."
"It better have four wheels when it comes back." Knuckles warned, digging into her pocket and dropping the keys into the Cavalier's hand.
Tommy Boy frowned. "Does it have four wheels now?"
"Funny." Knuckles glanced around at the crowd. "That does not explain all of you."
Rawhide took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Girl, `nothing' explains all of us." he admitted. Giving her a pat on the shoulder, he stepped away, offered his arm to Tommy Boy, and lead her back toward the zoo's entrance.
"So, I repeat..." Knuckles started again. "Why all of you?"
"Gage called." Buckaroo answered.
Knuckles groaned. "He worries too much." she protested as she started up the path.
Buckaroo stepped in front of her. "Yea, well worrying is good for those of you who don't worry enough." Before she could step away, he rested the back of his hand on her forehead. After a second, he frowned. "And, for your information, you do have fever. You are pale. And, so Gage has said, you haven't eaten today." He tilted his head to one side. "He also said you haven't been sleeping well, but that could be for a number of reasons." He threw a glare at Perfect Tommy, who quickly turned away to find something to distract himself with.
Peggy smiled. She took Knuckles arm and, dismissing her husband with a wave, moved the girl up the path. "We're only here to make sure you go straight home, under a cozy blanket and slippers, and get some toast and chicken soup in your belly."
Knowing there would be no successful protest when Peggy banzai got into her motherly mode, Knuckles allowed herself to be lead away. "Well, that explains Rawhide, TommyBoy, Buckaroo, and you. What about those two?" She threw her head back toward Perfect Tommy and Reno who had fallen in step behind.
Reno shrugged. "Just so happens you live over the Jessie James Club."
Perfect Tommy grinned. "We have a pretty good credit there."
"Yea. Happens we know the owner." Reno added, grinning too.
Knuckles threw them a glare, but Peggy had her too well in tow to get a shot off at the boys.
~~~~~
