“A Fan of Your Physical Form” (57.12) (Oka)

I was alone with Zeta in a beachside theater storeroom, both of us naked. Nobody had interrupted us. Neither of us knew exactly what we were supposed to do here, but even if we stopped after a few minutes of stares, this was still a huge victory.

“I can’t believe we’re really doing this,” I said. “Well, more shocked that some dumb thing didn’t get in our way.”

“Right,” Zeta said.

"I'm just expecting someone to burst in any second,” I said.

“So far so good,” Zeta said. “Um, if I didn’t say it, you’re so beautiful too.”

“Thank you,” I said. "What uh...what are you liking about this whole Oka Ohri situation?" I gestured down to myself.

I wouldn't say I was incredibly self-conscious about the idea of Zeta seeing me naked, I was pretty neutral on my figure, and Zeta had never given any indication she wouldn't be excited to see this. I did feel vulnerable, and it did feel strange being fully unclothed in a strange new space (I didn't realize how breezy it felt in this theater storage room until I could feel the indoor breeze against my...everything I guess?). but Zeta's cute expression as she looked me up and down again made me feel like my delicate self was being held by gentle hands.

"I don't even know where to start!" Zeta said. "It's giving me another 'I can't believe we're dating' moment. Like all the staring at the, er, chest region can't even compare to...yeah, wow. And copy that statement to every other part of your body."

We both were still standing across from each other with the nature background behind Zeta, twirling a bit, both our tails practically in sync from enjoying this moment. Zeta bit her lip.

“Do you want to maybe kiss a bit?” she asked.

I stammered through a response. I wasn’t sure what we’d do if we got this far; some of my fantasies included going much farther, but I wasn’t expecting both of us to be so willing to let ourselves have fun. My heart pounded as I stepped closer. She was just too beautiful. I thought I was going to explode.

“Um, just say so if we’re going too far,” I said.

“Mhm,” Zeta said. “We’ll be careful.”

When we stood a foot away, I was too afraid to touch her, so I leaned in. Zeta did the same, resulting in a not very passionate kiss that was intensely awkward.

“Kay, maybe let’s…at least a little bit…” Zeta said, cautiously reaching out to my cheeks. My hands went to her hips, my hands sweaty against her bare skin. Our second attempt at a kiss went much better. By the end of it, my hands had reached fully around to her back.

“That’s my butt,” Zeta said. She said that every time I grabbed her like this, I found it adorable. “You really like my butt, huh?”

“Uh huh,” I said.

Zeta moved her hands to my shoulders to do the same to me.

“That’s my butt,” I said, continuing our usual bit. Even though we were taking a big step forward, any feeling of familiarity made it less scary.

We ended up kind of slow dancing, something very familiar. In fact, one of the first things we did together was slow dance. I never would have guessed that the cute girl I met at a masquerade would one day be naked across from me, hugging close together.

"Our boobs are touching," I announced as I realized. I enjoyed that feeling clothed, but it was far superior like this.

Zeta snickered. "Really? I hadn't noticed."

After a few more kisses, grabs, giggles, and our first attempt at a full double tail hug while naked (it felt like having a fuzzy belt wrapped around us), we broke out of our close proximity, silently eyeing each other up again for a spell. Zeta clasped her fists together.

“I think! Is that enough for now?” Zeta said.

“Yeah,” I said. “Yeah! I think that’s great! I think we did pretty dang well here!”

“I think that was huge for us!” Zeta said.

“I wasn’t sure how far we could go, but I feel like we just opened up to a lot of new things.” I said.

"Sometimes just reaching the gate to a new place is an important leg of the journey," Zeta said. "Raina Starlight quote."

Zeta giving me Raina Starlight quotes while nude was the kind of thing that made me fall in love with her.

“I like that one,” I said. “My head’s kind of spinning. You’re just…dang, Zeta! You’re really pretty!”

“Thanks,” Zeta said. “You are too, my gosh!”

“So now we can do this,” I said. "We still need to find a place on campus, though.”

“For sure,” Zeta said. "I can drive a little bit now. Maybe it'd motivate me to get my license if I could drive you home."

"Maybe I should ask Berin if I can start learning how to drive, too," I said.

"And maybe we could try texting again, too?" Zeta said. "I feel like some of this business would be easier to say for me over text. And I can help make sure you send them only to me. Then we could go into what kind of stuff we could do...without just saying 'stuff,' maybe. If that's OK with you. I mean, we did pretty well today with that.”

“A lot of progress made!” I said. "That's a fair compromise, I was going to say as long as we also talk out loud, too.”

"Deal," Zeta said.

We high fived because we’re huge dorks. Also because we’re dorks, we grabbed our swimsuits from the pile we’d left them in and darted back to the wardrobes to get dressed in private. My heart was still pounding. It was a bit disappointing getting dressed, but it was getting close to go home time.

We didn’t dare speak when we snuck out of the theater, expecting a bunch of security guards to arrest us. I only felt safe talking again when we were outside the shake shack.

“I forgot to say, too,” Zeta said. “If you're still feeling bad about Iris and Maia or Lillia and Ko or whoever else going 'further' than us..."

“Uh huh?”

"I've been thinking about that, too. We're still the first of our friend group to date, so we 'won' there, right? So maybe it's OK that we take the rest at our pace?"

“I agree with that,” I said. "And now that we’ve done this, it might be easier to, erm, escalate.”

“Right!”

We both giggled, reveling in our new secret, our new doorway opened to the next exciting step in our journey. As fears started to creep in about where we were headed, rising up like prison bars, we worked together to smash them all apart. Another challenge to our relationship bested. We'd been together long enough for me to know things weren't always perfect. But every time Zeta and I crush something that had me worrying about us, I feel the biggest sense of pride.

"Thank you for this, Zeta," I said. "You're the best."

“Right back at ya, cutie,” Zeta winked.

I was sure the others got up to their own shenanigans. But I wouldn’t have traded that time alone with Zeta for anything in the world.