Apocalypse Wow, Pt. 02

In Part 1...

Jim and Simone, stuck together in a remote, rural house at the end of the world, ventured into the nearest town for supplies.

And although their mission was successful, they were brought terrifyingly face to face with the awful, gory, terrifying reality of what had happened to their world.

That night, scared and lonely, Simone asked Jim to hold her. And he did.

Note: This story has been edited from the original post. The changes are minor and relate to style only.

***

It's the End of the World as Jim Knows it.

Part 2 - "I guess we should talk about... you know..."

***

Where the fuck have you been? I've been sitting here for twenty minutes.

*No you haven't. I was talking to Caz for a maximum of five minutes.

Talking about me. Twenty minutes, I'm telling you. And hey, I've been thinking. Do you think I should do the voices?

*Not every conversation other people have is about you Jim. And what are you talking about?

Like, when people are saying stuff, you know, in the story. Should I do the voices?

*You mean should you imitate them?

Yeah, you know, try and make it more realistic or whatever.

*Are you being serious right now? This isn't a fucking game Jim, why do you have to be so god damn-

Easy D, easy. I'm sorry. I was just kidding around.

*Are you ready?

Ready for what?

*Don't fucking start with me Jim. Are you ready?

Right... sure... yeah......... So where were we? Oh yeah, that night...

Well, when I woke up, I'm pretty sure the first thing I was conscious of was being sticky. It took a couple of seconds for me to remember that there had been a lot of cumming going on the night before, so I guess it kind of made sense.

The second thing, of course, was the warmth of Simone's beautiful body next to mine. She was still asleep as far as I could see, lying peacefully on her back. The blanket exposed most of her body from the waist up and I couldn't help just... looking at her... just drinking her in.

That moment the night before, just after we'd both cum the first time, rushed back to my mind and I felt this weird wave of... happiness, you know... contentedness, just wash over me. I mean, up to that point, most mornings it took a few minutes to make fresh peace with the fact that, well, that the world had ended before I could get up and survive another day. That morning...... That morning, nothing else mattered. Only Simone.

Now, almost as if she'd sensed me looking at her or whatever, she kind of stirred and slowly opened her eyes. She took in a deep breath and looked around, I guess taking a few seconds to remember why she was in strange - or at least even stranger -- surroundings, until finally her eyes settled on me and this warm smile spread across her face.

"Jim," she said and reached an arm towards me. I leaned into it and, even though I was conscious of morning breath, you know, I kissed her, softly. She made this soft humming noise, kind of like a purr, and it was a real effort to take my lips away from hers.

"Good morning," I said and I leaned over her and looked into her eyes. I swear to god, in that moment, I understood perfectly that I was wildly, madly... fucking totally in love with her. And, yes, it did cross my mind to say it out loud. I think I came very close to it actually. But "I'll go and put on some coffee if you wanna take the first shower?" is what I said instead.

"Coffee would be great," she said, still smiling and she chuckled a little, "and a shower sounds pretty good too... I'm a lot dirtier than I was when I went to bed last night for some reason!"

I guess I chuckled back at her and leaned forward to kiss her quickly again before I got up. I threw on a pair of sweat shorts and a t-shirt. I looked back at the bed before heading for the door and Simone was looking at me. She wasn't really smiling anymore, there was... well, there was a different look on her face that I couldn't quite figure out, but it definitely made me a little nervous.

And she just said my name, really softly. I still wasn't sure what she was thinking, but I went back and leaned over her again. I could see her eyes, searching mine for... something... I'm not sure what and honestly, I had absolutely no control over what my face, my own eyes, were telling her. Even if I'd wanted to, and I'm not sure I did, I don't think I could've helped the message that I imagine was written pretty clearly on my face. I felt her hands on my face, holding me gently, and she leaned her head forward again and kissed me, long and deep.

So as I went to make the coffee, I was smiling pretty fucking broadly, right? Hell, who am I kidding? I was absolutely fucking ecstatic. I mean, the most earth-shattering sex of my life was pretty damn awesome but... that kiss just as I left the bedroom... Fuck.

As far as I was concerned, that kiss changed everything. In those few moments after I'd woken up when she was still asleep, dangerous thoughts had crept into my mind. Sex changes things, right? Or at least it used to. And not always for the better. I mean, I had first hand experience of the potential for sex to make things... awkward, to cause problems I mean and given the situation Simone and I found ourselves in, admittedly a totally unprecedented and unique one, I couldn't avoid the possibility that... that what had happened the previous night would negatively affect our new lives. I mean, what if... what if it... went bad?

Up to then - and I know it had only been two weeks - like I said already, we were getting along pretty good. We'd become friends I guess. And sure, yes, I was really attracted to Simone, but I had kind of made my peace with the fact that I would just have to live with that, you know.

And I really thought I could. I mean, I kept thinking how awful it would be to have to spend the end of the world with someone I didn't really like or someone who was just a complete asshole, you know? And Simone was so... I hesitate to say perfect, but you know what I mean. She was... kind and... helpful and... and so positive. And fun. I guess what I'm saying is, end of the world or not, she was just a good person to be around. So before that night, I guess I'd accepted that the sensible thing to do, to avoid jeopardising the positive thing we had going, was just to suffer my attraction to her in silence. Any attempt on my part to move things to a different level was, as far as I was concerned, just too great a risk.

So that's why I felt like that kiss changed everything. I mean, everything that had happened the night before I felt like I could explain away, you know. Like, her coming into my room I could honestly understand. What we'd seen and heard in Old Sal would've scared anyone, right? When you think about it like that, it really wasn't surprising that she didn't want to sleep alone that night.

And then, once she was in my bed and things... developed... I mean, it was literally a classic case of 'one thing led to another'. You could easily make the argument that at first she just wanted to feel... not alone I guess and that, when she'd felt my body against hers she just... got a little carried away or whatever, and then... well, I guess we both got carried away. It didn't necessarily mean anything... profound, much and all as it felt pretty fucking profound to me! There was that moment when she'd said my name but... really, how could I know if that moment had meant as much to her as it had to me? Maybe she just... said my name.

But then that kiss. The look in her eyes. OK, maybe she wasn't feeling as affected by what had happened between us as I was but after that kiss I was pretty damn sure she was feeling something. I mean, I had always been totally fucking useless at understanding what people, women especially, were thinking or feeling unless they fucking explained it to me in so many words, sometimes with fucking diagrams. But this... well... Yeah, I was pretty sure.

So like I said, I was pretty fucking ecstatic when I made my way out to the garage to make the coffee on the gas stove. I knew we'd have to talk about it and everything, but I was pretty confident we'd be OK.

Now, I know I kind of skipped over this part earlier so I guess you may be wondering at this point, and I tip my cap to your attention to detail if you are, how it was possible for us to have a working shower, I mean considering the power had gone out towards the evening of the First Day.

Well, the short answer is: I'm pretty fucking handy, that's how! To be fair, I did have some things going for me.

So, aside from its isolation, my parents' house had some other advantages as an end of the world location. For one thing, my dad had been kind of working on a kind of project to make the whole place as self-sufficient and as carbon neutral as it could be.

So for this reason, it had it's own well for water, a huge bank of solar panels on the roof and even a wind turbine for electricity a little back from the house. Now, at that point the installation of a lot of the PV panels and the turbine and the battery infrastructure hadn't been completed but, and I'll spare you the technical details, but after a couple of days, and really in an effort to find something to keep me occupied more than anything, I'd managed to figure out how to connect up the few solar panels that were ready to go directly with one of the batteries and then to the pump from the well and the water heater so that we not only had access to water, but hot water at that. The solar panels and the turbine together had been designed to power more or less the whole house, but without finishing the installation, for the moment, all we could get was a hot shower each every day, more or less. Finishing the installation of the wind turbine and the rest of the panels and then tying everything together with the rest of the batteries so we could power more things in the house would take a lot longer and I hadn't tackled that yet.

Actually, the process of figuring it out and making it work had been a nice thing to do for the two of us in those first few days. We were still feeling out this... bizarre situation, still trying to come to terms with the end of the world I guess, so working together on it, spending that time together... yeah... I guess it'd been a really good opportunity for us to get to know each other a little bit. Honestly, I think Simone was just as anxious for something to keep her mind occupied as I was. And it turns out she was pretty handy too!

Anyway, that's how we had access to a working hot shower and that's why, when I came back in from the garage with a pot of coffee, Simone was sitting in her usual spot at the counter in that robe that used to be my sister's, still... glistening a little. Her hair was still wet and just kind of hanging limply around her head. This might seem weird but... jesus, I thought she looked so fucking sexy.

"Hey," I said, casually, doing my best not to give expression to my almost all-consuming happiness, right? I mean, however sure I was feeling that everything was going to be OK, I still didn't want to come on too strong I guess. So I put the pot down on the counter near her and went to get two cups. When I turned my back, I heard her take in a deep breath.

"Mmm," she said, "that smells so good," and when I turned around with the cups, she had that warm smile I was getting so used to. I put the cups down, poured the coffee and picked one up and put it in front of her and she put her hand on my shoulder and leaned up to kiss me, just softly and quickly, on the mouth.

"Thanks Jim," she said. Honestly, I nearly laughed out loud. It was so fucking, I don't know, domestic or something, you know? Like we'd been living together for years.

Anyway, instead of laughing out loud, I took my own cup and sat down opposite her. I watched her bring the cup to her lips and close her eyes, and she just breathed in the warm scent of the coffee and took a careful sip, like she always did.

When she brought the cup down, she opened her eyes and must have seen me looking at her and for the first time in a while, I started to feel a little self-conscious again, a little worried that she might be uncomfortable with how I was looking at her I guess.

I'd spent a lot of that previous two weeks doing my best to... well... to not let her see me looking at her like that and I guess, with how fucking happy I was feeling... maybe I wanted to let the mask slip a little. Anyway, the little worry got a little bigger when the smile faded slowly from her face. My own smile faded pretty fucking quickly too, I can tell you.

"I guess... we should... ah... talk about... you know..." she said and lowered her cup really slowly and carefully to the counter. Her eyes followed the cup and dwelled on it for a second before she looked back at me and I could see her face was really serious now.

"Yeah... I... ah..." I said, but I guess I drifted off. I mean, my certainty about the significance of that kiss as I left the bedroom earlier had really started to evaporate by that point and, I guess pretty suddenly, I wasn't nearly as sure as I had been that she wanted to hear what... well... what I wanted to say I guess.

"Jim..." she said, "I have a lot I want to say... I'm sorry... forgive me if this comes out in a bit of a jumble... I just... I think it's important we're totally honest with each other... if we're not..." It was strange to hear that kind of hesitation in her voice, she was usually so assured, but, to be honest, I was more focussed on what I was feeling at that point. I mean, shit, I was fucking terrified. Honestly, fucking sick to my stomach. I actually took my hand off of my coffee cup because I was afraid she would see it shaking.

"It's OK Simone," I managed to say, don't know fucking how, "take your time." I have to tell you, I was really fucking impressed with myself that I managed to say that, managed to sound kind and supportive or whatever cause, inside? My mind was just fucking reeling, my heart was pounding. Anyway, after I said that she did this gentle smile. I guess that made me feel a little better.

"I... well... Jim..." she said, "I don't regret what happened last night, not one bit," and this quick wave of relief started to just wash over me, until my mind caught up that there was a very fucking obvious 'but' on the way, you know. "But, I want... I guess I want you to know that I... I didn't... Shit, this is a lot harder that I thought it was going to be," she said and took another quick sip. I really wasn't able to offer any supportive encouragement this time. I was so terrified by that point I thought I might actually vomit if I opened my mouth.

"I don't want you to get the wrong idea about me Jim..." she said, "I'm not... I'm not usually... Fuck. Jim, I didn't come in to your room last night to seduce you... or to... to have sex... Honestly, I really did just want... need to not be on my own, like I said... but when I felt your arms around me... felt your body against mine... I just..." She drifted off and kind of cast her eyes down again.

Well, shit. Right? Honestly, I felt just about as stupid as I'd ever felt in my life at that moment. Any trace of the joy I'd felt literally only moments before just left me completely. I mean, jesus, I'd actually thought about this and dismissed it, right? The 'one thing led to another' argument? Nothing profound to see here? But that sounded pretty much exactly like what she was saying to me now.

I guess what I heard was, you know, 'never intended it to happen...', 'one thing led to another' and I just fucking knew the all time classic 'let's just forget about the whole thing' was going to be the next thing out of her mouth. So to preserve whatever self-respect I might have left, I felt like I needed to say something.

"It's OK Simone," I said, "I guess it's... it's normal that... something like that... happened... I mean, we've been through so much, and there's no one else here. Sometimes a person just... just needs physical contact..." So, yeah, I got that far and I was looking at her closely, to try to gauge her reaction but I started to see this, I don't know, confusion or something in her eyes. And she cut me off.

"Jim," she said, "what happened last night wasn't... at least for me..." and at that point I think I took a pretty involuntary deep breath and hoped to christ I wasn't going to start crying. So I was a little surprised when she got up from her stool and walked over to me until she was standing right in front of me. "Jim," she said, "what happened last night wasn't some release of tension for me. And it wasn't just because I needed some physical contact... I mean, I did and it was really good... holy fucking shit, it was soooo good," she laughed a little here and put one of her hands on my arm. Honestly, it felt like a fucking jolt of electricity passing through me, I'm nearly surprised I didn't jerk my arm away.

"Jim," she said, "what I'm trying to say... and doing a really bad fucking job of it is that... what happened last night... wasn't something I planned but... well... it happened because... when I felt your arms around me I... I wanted it to... I... I've been trying to avoid saying something to you about... about how I was feeling... about you... or... doing something about it, for a while now. I guess I was afraid that... that if... if something went wrong, you know, then it would ruin this really good... dynamic I guess, we've got going here...... But when I felt your arms around me... I... I just couldn't resist it anymore." I think at this point my mouth was probably more or less wide open. God only knows what my face looked like. Anyway, I think I was glad she kept going.

"My last boyfriend," she said, "Jeremy - I think I told you about him? - he wasn't much of a cuddler, but I used to make him do it. I've always loved it, you know? The feeling of connection, the warmth of a body against mine, and I've been missing it a lot the last couple of weeks, I mean I haven't actually slept with anyone in months, but... with everything... you know, end of the fucking world and all that, I guess... So I started kind of fantasizing about it the last few nights, trying to remember what it felt like to have Jeremy's arms wrapped around me... and then, kind of... by accident I guess... it wasn't his arms, his body in the fantasy Jim, it was yours. Jim, I didn't want somebody, anybody to hold me last night, I wanted you." Her hands had dropped into my lap, where mine were, and they kind of just rested on mine, softly.

Man, was that morning turning into a fucking roller-coaster or what? So I was right the first time then. I mean, actually it was almost fucking unbelievable how what Simone was thinking was so fucking exactly the same as what I felt, right? I actually made a mental note for future reference to make sure we practised getting better at communicating our feelings but then I moved my hands to hold hers. I looked up and I could see that, even though her damp hair was kind of obscuring her face, I could see that her eyes were cast down.

And it occurred to me that what she'd just said to me had probably taken a lot of courage, you know? I mean, fuck, it was more fucking courage than I had. I was obviously feeling the same and I hadn't said shit! She was really putting herself out there. And so this wave of... affection just filled me. I knew I should say something but, honestly, that wave was just so fucking powerful, I think I was a little bit emotionally overwhelmed at that moment.

"Jim..." she said, "for fuck's sake say something," and she looked up at me, this nervous flicker of a smile on her face. Now, as you can imagine, her saying that put a little bit of pressure on me so I guess I probably spoke a little sooner than was wise, definitely too soon for me to have given any appropriate thought to what I said... or any possible consequences. Not that I didn't mean it, mind you.