Runetales Ch 08

The Runetales series is an ongoing sexual work of fiction. Check out previous chapters for all the details.

All characters in the series are above the age of consent.

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"Good old soup." Rune said, as he slid into one of the padded seats in their usual cafe nook. "Nothing beats soup."

Sydney looked up from her textbook about Number Theory, to quirk an eyebrow at him. "Didn't like the special?" Alex and Sydney were the only ones down here this hour. Both of them had empty plates on the side tables next to them, and a companionable silence hung between them.

Rune gestured with his spoon. "Turing is an amazing educational institution. But its kitchens sometimes leave something to be desired." He tasted a spoonful of soup, making a face. "Have I ever cooked for you Syd? I'm pretty good, actually." He winked at her.

She lowered her nose back into the book. "No, sweetie, you haven't. Maybe one of these days you can make me some breakfast."

As Rune was snickered into his spoon, Alex looked up from his laptop and cocked his head as he thought of something. "Hey, tomorrow's the big date, isn't it?"

Rune's snickering turned to coughing, and Syd closed her book into her lap.

"It is! Oh, sweetie!" She clapped her hands, giddy.

"You ... guys ... are going to kill me." He rasped out. He coughed into his hand, and took a drink of water.

Alex and Sydney exchanged a look. He set his laptop aside. Sydney leaned forward, putting her elbows on her knees. She was wearing her usual sweater and slacks, and it gave him a good view of her delightful chest. She did this every couple of weeks to tease him, and he stuck out his tongue at her.

"You, you especially." He pointed at Sydney. "Gonna kill me." She smiled bigger, winking back at him.

"Why are you guys poking me?" Rune sighed, and set aside his soup. "Did I anger you two in some way that I am not aware?"

"Nope, not angry!" Sydney laughed. "Actually, delighted."

Rune made a face. Crossed his arms. Sydney's eyebrows went up and she sat back.

"You ... stars and stones, you're nervous!" Sydney looked genuinely surprised. "Rune I have known you for the better part of a year, and I think I've seen you nervous maybe once before."

"I'm not ..." the quaver in his voice made him stop talking and turn away. "Just shut up."

Alex reached out and patted Rune's knee. "If it makes you feel any better, she's just as nervous."

Rune wanted to turn and look at him, but instead just shifted his shoulders. He heard both of them sigh.

"It's true." Sydney had less of a taunt to her voice. "She was down here period before last. She dropped a whole stack of books on Ken." She paused. "We laughed."

"How long has it been?" Alex wasn't laughing anymore either.

Rune turned back to them. "Two weeks."

Syd whistled. "How are you guys so bad at everything?"

"We're busy people. We keep missing each other and..." Rune sighed.

"Amanda tells me that you guys had a hot and heavy moment. And then I hear from Cora you guys are broken up, but you're still friends." She paused, adding weight to her words. "And that was two weeks ago! I've had entire relationships that lasted less than fourteen days."

He cleared his throat. "We made plans for a date, and we wanted to stick to those plans."

"Are you blushing?" She giggled. "You're blushing. Those must be some plans."

Rune grabbed his plate and bowl, and went back to eating his soup. "Jerks." he muttered.

Alex just laughed. "I'm going to get another water. Rune?" He nodded. "Syd?"

"Thank you sir. I would love another refreshing beverage." Syd smiled at him as he walked away. As soon as Alex had moved off, she scooted forward on the couch.

"Rune, you're going to be fine. Just breathe. Uh, after you're done eating your soup." She put her elbows on her knees again. "You realize you're wrecking something beautiful here, right?"

Rune paused, his spoon halfway to his mouth. "Huh?" He said, eloquently.

"You and Amanda are our favorite weekly show. Every day it's 'who will leave the nook to avoid the other?' or 'he'll almost fall over to avoid touching her!'" She grinned. "Your almost palpable sexual tension amuses your friends." He scowled at her.

She held up her hands in surrender. "Rune, seriously. We love you guys. We're happy you're happy. Can you tell me something, though?" He nodded into his bowl, avoiding meeting her eyes.

Sydney paused, considering her words. "What is it about Amanda?"

He let the question hang in the air a moment. He took a drink, cleared his throat.

"No, really Rune. I mean, what do you even know about her?" Sydney was smiling, but she meant what she said.

"Um. She's smart and funny, and." His voice sounded strained, even to him. "Syd, I'm not sure. Honestly. We just have this connection ... I probably don't make any sense. In fact, maybe we should cancel? I don't know."

"Rune, I am going to be a merciful hottie and tell you why you and Amanda spark like crazy." She stood up, took his soup from him and placed it on the side table. She slid into the chair with him, not quite sitting in his lap. Rune sighed and put his head on her shoulder.

"Sweetie, you know I'm very smart." She began.

"You're a genius." He said, agreeably.

"And you're adorable. But we're talking about Amanda. She's smarter than me, Rune. Her brain's as smoking hot as her body. What you have is frisson. Because you're a big smarty too, you know? And there's nothing sexier than two smart people being all sexy." She paused.

"Except when you're idiots." She fondly konked him on the head as she put her arm around his back.

"Idiots?" He asked.

"This is how smart people operate. 'Oh man, he sure is cute. I would like to do things to his booty!'" She made little puppet mouth movements with her other hand.

The puppet switched sides. "But there are lots of reasons why we shouldn't get together because our brains are full of logic!"

Syd stopped doing the puppet voice. "See, this is where smart people get stuck. You guys didn't spend two weeks not going out because you were busy. You didn't go out because you were making up reasons not to."

She leaned her head against his, and they sat in companionable silence for a minute. Then she stood, her long legs and arms unfolding her out of the chair. She turned back to him, kneeling down so they were eye to eye.

"Rune, I love you guys. You are both ..." She turned away, looking across the lunch room. He straightened in his chair, quirking an eyebrow at her. She turned back, saying "I've loved getting to know you. And Amanda's a really special lady." She looked like she had something on her mind.

"Syd, you okay?" He asked.

She nodded, looking down and away from him for a second. She looked back up into his face as she said, "Yeah. I'm okay. I just want you guys to actually give things a chance. Instead of brain-pooping all over everything."

Rune's mouth became a wry line. "Brain poop?"

Syd stood up, patting him on the head. "Just remember what I said. And try to relax?"

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Decades of experience, nanotech-enhanced senses, an onboard AI for council, an entirely rebuilt body, Sydney's pep talk ... and Rune was still nervous as hell. In fact, he was shaking.

"Eve, double check me." He spoke inside his head

Her voice filled his ears, quiet and kind. "I've double checked. You're a dumbass."

Her humor helped, a little. "Okay, so I'm not having a heart attack. Good." He paused. "Seriously, what's wrong?"

She whispered a sigh into his mind. "You have emotions based in chemical software running on gross, squishy hardware. Not awesome and digital like mine."

"I don't think I've been this nervous since my rebirthday." He leaned back in the booth, trying again to relax. Around him the hum of a busy restaurant went some way towards soothing his mind.

The "Passage to India" was everything he loved in a family-owned place. It wasn't well-lit, or well-ventilated, or fancy in any way. But it was clean, it was full of life, and it smelled like heaven.

Rune reached out to pull another bite off of his naan when the door opened with the jingle of a bell. And Amanda stepped inside. She had her long red hair pulled up into a simple ponytail. Her favorite jacket clung to her slender frame, brown leather that fit her like a glove. A pair of ratty looking blue jeans and some big stompy boots completed her outfit. When she unzipped the jacket he could see she was wearing a faded black shirt with the iconic "WASD" keys across her chest.

She paused, just inside the doorway, and scanned the room. He raised his hand, just a bit, and he saw her lock on to him as he gave her a half wave. She started towards him, and as she did the strangest thing happened.

She smiled. A small smile, but a smile. And in that smile he saw tension and nerves come rolling off her back. Her shoulders, straight and hard underneath the leather, sagged in relief. It was like the pulling of a cork, as he felt his own angst and nerves just start to roll away. A cloud scattering in morning light.

He stood as she approached, and for a moment they just stood there facing each other. Planning for their first date had been done at a heated moment, and they'd agreed they didn't want any pressure. He was wearing clothes almost identical to hers, a hoodie over jeans and a t-shirt.

She broke the ice. "Hi Rune." She said quietly.

He leaned in, not caring about the older woman down the aisle that turned to stare. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into a hug. He felt her shoulders tense again, just for a moment, before they once again drooped. "Hi Amanda."

He stepped back and pulled out the chair opposite his before sliding back into his booth seat. She sat, her smile growing more confident on her face.

"So I heard from some cute guy the food here is pretty great?" She offered, looking down at the menu.

"Cute and smart too." He leaned in, raising a hand to his mouth in mock secrecy. "It's mostly because the mom that runs the place loves me. I think I remind her of a relative."

Amanda leaned back in her chair, looking around. Her makeup was understated, simple, and in the dim light of the restaurant she looked beautiful.

She turned back to him, catching him looking. She raised an eyebrow and pulled over a menu. Flipping it open, she said "So what's good?"

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An hour later, Amanda sat back in her chair, a look of peace on her face. "You get points. Big time points."

Rune was idly nibbling some naan, the remains of a feast spread out between them. "As advertised, huh?" He was happy to hear she'd enjoyed the food. Their nerves had burned off in that initial meeting, but they'd only picked at conversational topics during their meal.

She closed her eyes and nodded. They sat in silence for a moment. Rune finished off his naan, wiped his hands with his napkin, and sat back himself.

"Manda?" She crooked open an eye. "What are we doing?"

She made a face, rubbing at her eyes and looking around. "Rune, I don't know. We avoid each other at school. I was ..." She sighed. "I was super nervous coming over here. I spent twenty minutes just sitting on my bed trying to figure out what I was going to wear."

He smiled. "Me too. I'm glad you went with comfortable. I wouldn't want you to feel like you need to dress up for me."

The edges of her lips quirked up. "That's a separate conversation." She paused. "Wait, you were nervous too?"

He nodded. "Yesterday I was so twitchy Syd had to sit me down and have a talk."

"Hah, she did the same thing to me." Her cheeks flushed, a little. "I may have dropped some books on Ken. I turned really fast because I thought I saw you out of the corner of my eye."

He tried not to let his grin get too big. "That is adorable. Uh, did you see my pratfall on Monday?" She shook her head. He sighed, sitting forward. "You came out of the library with Cora. Do you remember, you were wearing that awesome red dress? My head wanted to stare at you but my feet wanted me to get out of your way. I ended up bouncing off a trash can, tripping over Sean Landri's foot where he was tying his shoe, and doing a faceplant into Professor Hyung."

Amanda was biting her lip, and her cheeks had gone from pink to red as she tried not to laugh. Her head was down, and her hair hid her eyes as she shook with repressed mirth.

Rune sighed again, more expansively. "Oh, c'mon. You're just as bad as I am! Madi told me about that time at the department store."

Amanda sat up straight, a look of surprise on her face. "Oh, I will kill that girl." She hissed. "What did she tell you?"

Rune put on an innocent look. "Not much."

She kicked him under the table. "Bitch, that is way more embarrassing than falling down because I look amazing in red velvet." Their waiter chose that moment to stop by with the check. Amanda took it, and slid the credit card she'd had sitting in her lap into the little leather book. He nodded and walked off. The whole exchange couldn't have taken more than ten seconds.

Rune blinked. "One, ow. I use that leg for things. Two, thank you?" This was a first for him, at least on a first date.

"If we're going to go out, first thing you need to learn about me. My parents never girl-ed me up. I don't think you need to hold the door for me or buy me all my meals." She smiled. "I'll thank you if you do, of course. But I don't expect it."

He nodded, a grin growing on his face.

"What?" She looked back at him, trying to fight the smile on her face.

"Nothing. Just ... thinking of something Sydney said." Rune folded his arms and sat back.

Amanda's face twisted in a scowl. "You're trying to get out of answering my question with cuteness. What did she tell you?"

Rune forced his mouth to relax from the grin it desperately wanted to maintain. "If I tell you, do you promise not to take it out on Madison? I think she was trying to hop on the 'get Amanda and Rune together' party bus."

Amanda crossed her arms in front of her. "I promise nothing. But I will consider lenience."

"Okay. Uh, Madi said that you, her, Cora, Syd, and Heather were doing the girlforce shopping trip for summer. As an aside, I don't understand why you have to buy swimwear for summer in March. That's weird." He gestured expansively.

She quirked an eyebrow. Tapped a finger against her crossed arms.

"Right, so. She said you guys were trying stuff on, and Syd called Cora out on the bite mark I gave her shoulder." Saying this out loud made Rune's cheeks turn pink, now. "And then Syd did the thing she does where she gets you to do what she wants with mind powers, and Cora related how I gave her the bite mark. In some detail, as I understand."

Amanda was no longer looking annoyed, and her cheeks were faint pink as well. "She was quite descriptive." She swallowed hard.

"Right. Uh. Well, I guess ... uh. I guess as she was describing the really good parts." Rune had to pause for a second to shiver. That had been an incredible night. "I guess you might have ... moaned?" He said it as a half-question, trying not to embarrass her more than she already was.

The waiter returned with their check, which let her look away and uncross her arms. She thanked him, and signed the bill. She turned back to look at Rune, and he could see a fire in her eyes. She leaned forward across the table, and held out her hand. He slid it into hers, and again he could feel that connection. The electrical spark, the feel of her skin against his, set his teeth to buzzing.

For the first time, neither of them fought it. It was an amazing moment. Both of them looked down to where they joined together. She moved her thumb, gently massaging the back of his hand. Almost in unison, they raised their heads to look into each other's eyes. Her eyes were so green, vivid and intense like water in the caribbean. He could see her intelligence, her strength, shining through those eyes. She was a damned impressive woman. Locking eyes with her, holding hands, was like feeling the heat from a nuclear reactor.

He felt heat rising in his cheeks, and the look in his eye must have changed. She responded in kind, running her thumb along the sensitive edge of his abductor muscle. She looked down at their hands again, and when she looked back up the message in her eyes was clear. She wanted him.

He squeezed her hand, and stood. She joined him, and they shrugged into their overclothes as they walked towards the door. Rune waved a goodbye and thanks to the old proprietress as they left, Amanda holding open the door for Rune.

Outside, they stood on the sidewalk for a moment, adjusting to the cool darkness of a San Jose spring evening.

He reached out, taking her hand in his. "I know what we said, on the beach. But I want you to know I'd be happy if we just hung out for a while longer. Maybe go get some coffee?" He grinned at her. "I almost can't believe we're finally out together."

Amanda turned from looking around at the street, where pedestrians strolled in twos and threes, to regard the night sky. Even through the light pollution of the city, the sky was beautiful. "Whenever I think about what I should do, I look up." He joined her in considering the sky.

"Ancient cultures made figures and animals out of the stars, bringing order to chaos and making the unknowable familiar." She went on. "When I look up at the night sky, I see the dark matter filaments that hold the known universe together. I see the dying light cast by balls of fire that ceased to exist millions of years ago. I see how small and tiny and meaningless I am in the grand scheme of things."

She pulled her gaze down to his face, looking into his eyes. "I look up, and I think about how I can best use the moments I have to live and breath and taste the air on this little ball of mud." She blushed, then, and looked away from him.

"I'm sorry, that was probably inescapably..." she said, in a quiet voice, interrupted as he moved against her.

He cupped a hand under her chin and raised it to meet him. He leaned in and brushed his lips against hers, a gentle kiss of greeting. She hummed her agreement as she leaned into him, pressing her lips and her body against him. If their hands touching had been like a live wire, their first kiss was a very gentle nuclear blast.

Every hair stood on end, his muscles tensed, and the world fell away. The feeling of Amanda against him, of her hot lips on his, was everything. She wrapped her arms around him, and he her. The moment went on and on, their kiss chaste but familiar somehow.

Finally she stepped back, her face flushed. "... nerdy." she finished, sounding a little dazed.

"Sorry to interrupt you. I just ... that was beautiful." Rune reached up to brush some hair out of his face. "What were you going to say?"

Amanda looked across the gap between them. They were about the same height, and she looked directly into his eyes. Her lids were half closed, and as they looked at each other he saw her chest start to rise and fall more quickly. "I was going to say," she said, stepping forward with a deliberate sway to her steps. "That our lives are short. And we've waited long enough."

She stepped into him, grabbing him by the front of his hoodie and pulling him close. She assaulted his lips, opening her mouth to him. He responded in kind, and their tongues slid against each other with passion. The electricity was alive in their mouths, and to Rune's mind she tasted like nothing he'd ever experienced before.

When they came up for air, they were both red-faced and breathing hard. She grinned at him. "Your dad's out of town, right?"

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