Ask and ye shall receive!
Alright, this got way more attention than I thought it would. This is yet another singular 4k word chapter. I might lengthen them out later on, but for now, that's what I'm working with. As usual, share some love, vote, comment, flick me an email. I'll start pumping out new chapters as I come up with them, but no promises on the time scale. I've still got a space opera to write haha
Thanks for reading!
Monty
Chapter Two
Akira slowly came awake. She was cocooned in warmth. The comfortable weight pressing all around her gave her comfort... Only...
"You're awake," a heavy, feminine voice said softly. Akira froze, not even betraying a quiver. The comfortable weight around her squeezed softly, before woman-handling her around to face the creature that had her ensnared. Akira shyly glanced up into a pair of brown orbs, that stared right back.
"Hello," she said weakly.
Bellinda smiled, a big friendly smile. "Hi. Are you feeling better now?"
"Mhm," Akira nodded meekly.
Bellinda pulled her close for a few heartbeats and Akira closed her eyes. It wasn't that she felt oppressed. Literally the opposite. She'd never felt like this before. Boys had paid little interest to her. Girls her age wanted to party and flirt. Akira just wanted to feel normal, but was too shy to ever leave the house. With the exception of Thomas of course. He'd been her best friend since he moved into the area. She was the first one he ever came out to and she'd held that secret until he came out to his parents, before introducing them to his first boyfriend. Over the years and several tearful breakups, they'd both decided to just stick it out together. And now, after all this time thinking she'd be alone. Here she was, snuggled in the arms of an ebony goddess.
Without thinking, Akira wriggled one arm under the larger woman's side and snuggled in closer. Just enjoying the comfort, without any real knowledge of why her chest beat quite so hard. With her face pressed between two enormous, but proportional breasts, she didn't see Bellinda's smile. But she felt as the amazonian woman began to stroke her hair. She'd never been... touched, before. Not like this. Not since her Papa died at least. He did the best hugs, while Akira's mother was rather withdrawn. So Akira snuggled in, and made the best of it.
"Hey! Ahh..." Ceejay paused, seeing the two women curled up on the dusty old couch.
"What's up?" Bellinda asked, rolling her eyes.
"There's some old angry dude here threatening to call the cops."
Akira froze, before pulling away from Bellinda. Quickly standing, she ignored the blush on her face while she dashed out of the small side office they were in. Heading right through the workshop, she could hear the voice clear as day.
"I know you're not supposed to be in there! Get out before I call the police!"
Akira couldn't be certain, but it sounded familiar. And as she rounded the side of Henry, she laid eyes on their angry guest. He was busy scolding Mel who was carefully climbing down off the tank without damaging any of the wreaths. Even in his anger, the old man was polite enough to offer her a hand. But it was as his eyes swept over the room, they landed on Akira.
"Hello Paul," Akira said softly.
"Akira," the old man took his hat off his head. "I-I'm sorry. We had alarms installed in case anyone broke in. After all these years, I never thought you'd be the one to open the shed."
Akira strode up to her Papa's old friend. He was mostly like she remembered, only older. More refined. He looked like he was taking care of himself. He glanced around at the three ladies with Akira and swallowed self consciously. It had been a long time since he'd been around attractive young women. Retirement had been good to him, but he hadn't had anyone to share it with.
"So, who's your friends?" He asked.
"Mel," the skinny blonde offered her hand to shake.
"I'm Ceejay!" the red-head darted in for a hug.
"Bellinda," the tall beauty patted Akira's shoulder as she passed to greet the old man.
Paul looked at each of them, "Well, sorry about the entrance. I'm Paul, an old friend. What brought on the decision to open up the shed after all this time?"
"Umm, we were... Kinda hoping..."
"We wanted to enter the Rolling Thunder Tournament," Mel said quickly, offering Akira a quick smile.
"An all girls crew!" Ceejay cheered loudly.
"Our original gunner was the one who set us up with a tank. But that fell through last minute, and we just happened to bump into the lovely Akira here," Bellinda smiled at the small woman.
Paul just looked over each of them, before nodding once. "Fair enough. You ladies know what you're doing?"
Ceejay deflated slightly, "Not in a T-34. We trained in an Italian Fiat-Ansaldo m15/42."
Paul cocked his eyebrow, "And your old friend just dropped the whole idea?"
"It was her brothers," Ceejay groaned. "Apparently she didn't ask if we could use it until the day and he said no. All that training for nothing."
Paul shook his head, "Training is never for nothing. The skills you learned driving that tank will transfer to this one, don't you worry."
"We never actually drove the tank," Mel said softly.
Paul sighed. "Look, I've got a few hours. Do you want some pointers to get old Henry here into action?"
Three of the ladies beamed brightly. The fourth, froze in apprehension at the idea of being in that cramped turret with Bellinda.
"Okay," she said softly.
***
"Alright, ease her out!" Paul called through the intercom.
He was sitting on the top of the tank while the crew were all in position. If not for Akira's small stature, there wouldn't be enough room for the two of them inside the turret. Comfort was a distant second to the demands of WW2. But it did leave her rather close to the large woman pressed in beside her.
"You okay?" Bellina asked.
Akira nodded slightly, touching the controls for the turret to steady herself as the tank lumbered forward. She knew the last hands to touch them were her Papa's. And she had mixed feelings about touching them now. The original electronic system was replaced with a more modern one. The original T-34's had issues with broken teeth, noise, and even sparks. This new system worked perfectly and was designed to move at the same pace as the original.
"Alright, Ceejay, on the roof above you, there's a switch with a speaker next to it. I want you to flick it."
Ceejay glanced up, seeing the switch immediately and did as she was told. The moment she did so, the tank rumbled like the engine came to life. It was purely artificial, but as the old tank rumbled onto the lawn, you'd be hard pressed to tell it was fake.
"Get up to walking speed and make some slow turns. Don't go throwing me off!"
The tank lumbered out into the yard. For any observer, it looked and sounded just like a real T-34. And with Ceejay at the controls, it drove like one too. Smooth wide turns left barely any marks in the grass. And it gave Paul a grin, that maybe these girls knew what they were doing.
"Pull to a stop, let me off, then do some faster laps of the yard."
Ceejay called out her agreement, before pulling back on the brakes and slowing the tank to a comfortable stop. Paul handed the intercom back to Bellinda, who wrapped it back around her head. Then, as he climbed down, Bellinda reached up and closed the hatch, sealing them all inside. As the turret went dark the internal lighting switched on, giving the inside a faint glow. Akira ignored Bellinda staring at her and pretended to check over the systems via the small panel. Obviously, there was nothing wrong, but she had no idea what to say to the dark skinned woman who made her feel things that confused her more than any single person had ever before GASP BREATHE CALM!
"You okay?"
Akira almost flinched, before nodding slowly.
"I-"
"Ready ladies?!" Ceejay called over the intercom.
Akira blanched realising they could hear everything said between them. But with Bellinda and Mel giving their consent, she felt Bellinda's eyes on her again.
"Let's go Ceejay," Akira said softly.
Paul walked straight into the shed, before grabbing out a chair and setting it on the lawn. He shifted his hat to better cover his eyes from the sun, while he watched the still stationery tank. What he wasn't expecting, was for it to suddenly start throttling up. The throttling up itself was just the sound it made through the sound system mounted underneath, but it did mean that Ceejay was about to do something dangerous.
"Oh no," the old man gasped.
Before he could get out of his chair, the tracks of the tank lurched into movement. The harsh metal bit down into the earth and the tank reared up from the torque of the motor. Paul watched in horror as it launched across the yard. It went straight for a few meters, before sliding from side to side, like Ceejay was having trouble keeping it steady. She was heading right for the trees at the rear of the property. Paul, with all the speed of an old man, sprinted for his jeep.
Ceejay was cackling madly...
"This things great!" She squealed through the intercom.
Akira could see the status on the panel, they were at the top speed at 53km/h. No huge sprinter, but for the era and the fact Henry weighed in at twenty-eight and a half tonnes. But in a flash, everything went sideways. Akira, terrified at the sudden change in momentum, threw her arms out. The harness she wore kept her in her seat and safe, but her hand suddenly met something warm. The warm thing quickly enveloped her hand and Akira turned her head to see Bellinda holding her hand. In the low internal light, Akira hoped Bellinda couldn't see her blush.
"And spin!" Ceejay called.
In a gut wrenching maneuver, Ceejay threw Henry sideways and then into a one-eighty, so they were facing back the opposite direction. Slamming the controls forward, Henry lurched into action again, racing back towards the house at the front of the yard. This time Ceejay kept the tank moving in a slow winding fashion, before using the width of the yard to turn around and come to a stop. Directly in front of the tank, was Paul's jeep. Akira listened as Ceejay popped the driver's hatch and pushed it open.
"Hey Paul! Henry's a lot faster than I thought he'd be!"
