Gentleman in the Forest (old ver.)

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Nathaniel dragged himself back into the cave, wiping off as much water as he could. He had spent a while in the wind and rain, half-heartedly checking the water systems he knew were fine anyway. He mostly just needed to get out of the cave and away from her. He didn't want to admit it, but what she had said hurt him deeply. The only bright side was that between his hurt feelings and the cold of the rain, he didn't seem to be suffering from the heat of mating season anymore so at least he wouldn't have to worry about losing control of himself.

He took one last look outside, checking the nasty weather before he went far enough back into his cave to be unable to see the sky anymore. The rain had turned into a full on storm and it clearly wasn't going to stop anytime soon. Nathaniel sighed and resigned himself of a full night of being trapped in his home with a woman who would likely want nothing to do with him after she left. He walked back into his home, quickly jolted to his bathroom to get a towel, having to settle for the one he had used in his bath earlier, and then headed towards the laundry area.

"Miss King?" he cried out as he dried himself off, "I'm afraid that the storm has gotten much worse and it's definitely not going to let up until at least tomorrow. We should probably come up with suitable arrangements for you to spend the night comfortably here so that you can go home when the weather lets up." He stopped in his tracks the second her heard her crying. "Miss King?" he cried out, as he made his way back towards the laundry area.

As soon as he came within Felicity's eyesight, she rushed over to him and gripped him tightly in a hug he certainly hadn't been expecting. He hadn't really been expecting anything except for her to be upset that she was stuck here with him. At that moment though, he was extremely happy that the heat of mating season had been dulled by his bad mood and the rain. If it hadn't been, feeling her warm body pressed so tightly against him would have caused him to mate with her right then and there. He was sure of that, despite never having actually gone through it before.

"I'm sorry Nathaniel." she said to him, "I didn't mean to imply that you didn't deserve someone to love you. You're a great guy, even if your people skills need some work." she said with a small chuckle. "I just hope you didn't misunderstand me. I just wanted to get across that a good relationship takes time and effort to build up into the kind of love that you're hoping to have one day. That's all. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings." she took a deep breath, wiping her and putting on a smile. "I'm sure that someday you'll come to be with someone who's come to truly love and understand you."

She let go of him and looked up into his eyes with that smile of hers. Nathaniel felt his earlier dour mood melt instantly as a blush found its way onto his face and he quickly worked to hide it from her. He doubted it worked, since she seemed to be giggling at him while he coughed and looked away from her.

"I understand what you mean, and it's quite alright. I was only trying to convey my own feelings. I know it's not as simple as love at first sight. That's merely attraction, but there is always an event where those who fall in love meet. An act of fate, that brings them together. That is what I believe true love is about. People who were meant to be together, brought together against all odds." He responded. Felicity looked at him as though he were an enigma, which he supposed he could understand. He knew that his beliefs were a bit corny, but he liked to live in hope.

"I cannot believe you managed to say all of that with a straight face." Felicity said, barely containing her laughter as an occasional snicker. "You're honestly kind of amazing. Being able to think like that despite your previous unfortunate experiences. Though I'm not entirely sure how you plan on meeting a nice Arachne woman stuck in a cave all day."

"Oh. Well actually," he said, hesitantly "my kind don't mate with other Arachne. We take humans as our mates. For example, my father was human and my mother was an Arachne like me. I actually get the color of my eyes from her and my hair color from my father."

"Wait," she said, holding up her hands. "You...your kind, I mean, have...human lovers? Make kids with humans? I mean how does that work? We're completely different....aren't we? Physically, anyway? Wouldn't you just...well mate with your own species?" She asked nervously.

"Well, no." He replied, a bit nervous. "First off, male Arachne are exceedingly rare according to my mother. She had 12 siblings before she left home to build her own nest and had met other Arachne while travelling. Apparently, I'm the only male she'd ever seen. Though she had heard of a couple others. Apparently, bearing a male child means that you have found an ideal mate. At least, that's what I was told." Nathaniel explained, a sad smile gracing his face as he remembered his mother and her stories. He hoped he hadn't made her nervous telling her all this.

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Felicity was nervous as all hell right then. Seriously, human women are what he's looking for?! I can't believe he wasn't waiting for a woman with spider legs to come around. She thought while managing to maintain a mostly blank face. Wait, so does that mean he finds me...? Oh God, I've been walking around him without panties on this whole time! She could feel a blush coming on and had to fight it back down with everything she had. No no no, calm down. If he was going to do something bad, he would have done it by now. I mean, how many times has he had me at his mercy? And he's been nothing but nice to me. She took a deep breath and looked Nathaniel in the face now that she was calmer. Besides, he's actually not too bad looking from the waist up. Kind of cu...Her eyes went wide when she barely managed to kill that thought before finishing it.

"So you said something about arrangements for spending the night? Because the storm is so bad, I mean?" she said quickly, desperate to change the subject and derail her train of thought. "I mean, what did you have in mind? I've seen a lot of things in here, but no bed so far." She hadn't been expecting the laugh that came out of him when she said that, but it was a great indicator of his lightened mood and brought a smile to both of their faces despite her small panic attack.

"Do you honestly think there's any bed on Earth I could get all the way out here that I would fit on? I mean, look at me. My lower body doesn't really work for a king-sized mattress, and they don't get bigger than that without being specialty." He told her, fighting off a giggling fit. After he had managed to calm down a bit, he pointed up towards the ceiling in a particular corner of the cave. Felicity almost immediately saw the enormous hammock-like web that was suspended near the ceiling. "I sleep in that, on my stomach so that I don't have trouble breathing. I'll make one for you as well, much closer to the ground of course. You can't climb down the wall if you have to get up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night, after all. Just pick somewhere you'd like me to set it up and I'll get to work."

Felicity chuckled at that thought, now thinking of him half-asleep and dragging himself down the wall because of needing to use the little spider's room. She looked around the cave, taking note now of all the little nooks and crannies that were littered throughout the cave. She didn't really feel too comfortable sleeping right underneath him, but she also didn't want to be too far from the bathroom. Wetting myself in these panties once was enough, thank you very much. She thought as she took note of a corner by his tailor studio. Perfect.

"Would over there be alright?" she asked him, pointing out precisely where she meant between the tailor studio and the laundry alcove. "It seems a pretty good distance to everything I'm going to need to use when I wake up tomorrow. Plus, it looks like about as much privacy as I'll be getting while I'm your guest." He looked over where she was pointing and nodded at her. He skittered over to it and started to place webbing carefully from one wall to the next. Felicity watched him work intently as he took his various strands of web and started to weave them together into some kind of thick web-rope. Strand after strand was turned into rope, then that rope was woven into a lattice pattern until the hammock had started to take on a shape she could recognize.

Watching him work with his webs was captivating, like watching the making of high art. His fingers moved quickly and with a clear purpose in mind every single second. At some point he had started to simply grab webbing from his spinneret and weave it together in patterns that he would then weave into the ropes. He clearly enjoyed it too, the smile that came to him as he created lighting up his face in a way that she hadn't yet seen. He's kind of cute when he smiles.

She had flinched the second she'd thought it, then started to breath ever-so-slightly heavier. Get a hold of yourself girl! She admonished herself, He has spider parts, how could you think he's cute? I mean, he's a nice guy. Absolutely but... Her thoughts stopped again as her face fell back to neutral despite her thoughts still racing in her head. But what? He's been nothing but wonderful to me, a gentleman even. And that's despite the fact that I broke into his home. He's scared that I could endanger his life and drive him out of his home but he's still nice. Hell Felicity, you freaked out earlier about whether he'd try to screw you without consent but he hasn't even come close despite the fact he flat out told you that he was in heat and you've been walking around without panties on.

The look on her face changed again, into a look of resolve. You know what? Yeah, he's cute and I'm not going to be ashamed that I'm thinking that. Lying to myself isn't going to accomplish anything anyway and for the most part, I haven't been treated this well by a guy in ages.

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Nathaniel smiled as he finished making the hammock, testing its strength by pushing down on it with both hands. Perfect, he thought, this will be able to support more than double her weight without breaking. Not bad at all for something I hobbled together in a hurry. He brought his hands off of the hammock and looked at the sticky residue. She won't be able to sleep on this just yet though. Not if she wants to be able to get off it without needing to be cut down anyway. He turned around, ready to talk to her about finishing up the hammock when he saw her face. Felicity was looking at him with a small smile and a noticeable blush on her face.

His body instantly started to shiver with arousal. Seeing her looking at him like that caused his mating heat to flare up worse than ever, even compared to when he had first cocooned her. He wrapped his arms around himself in a desperate bid for control, but his instincts were screaming to take this beauty before him. It was quickly becoming a losing battle as he started to shake harder and breath heavier.

"Hey, are you okay Nathaniel? You're shivering an awful lot. Are you cold?" Felicity asked, her voice ringing sweet and clear in his ears. He needed to get away, while he was still able to maintain his self-control. He started to back away, unable to take his eyes away from her face as it drew into a mask of great worry. "What's wrong? Did I do something again? Is that why you're backing away?" She asked him, taking a step forward.

"I'M FINE!" he yelled, much louder than he'd meant to. It took a supreme effort of will to turn himself away from her, but he'd managed it and started getting away from her as quickly as he could. He ran as fast as his eight legs would carry him to his studio, feeling that if he could just busy his mind again then he would be able to ignore his rising heat. Hammock, hammock. Need to finish the hammock. His panicked mind thought, It's still sticky, so I need the spray. That will do the trick. Just...keep...working.

He heard her footsteps following after him, her bare feet plodding on the floor of the cave since there were no rugs over where she was sleeping for the night. He tried to keep his mind off of it, off of her but it wasn't working. Nothing seemed to be working as the heat wracked more and more of his body, rising to the point where it was becoming painful. She was getting too close. He could actually smell her, her natural odor mixing with the bath scent she used earlier. Please Felicity. Please don't come any closer. I don't want to hurt you.

"Hey," she said to him, placing a hand gently upon the back of his upper body, "you can talk to me if something is wrong. I promise, I'll do my best to help you with whatever it is." He flinched when he felt her hand touch his back, fully expecting to lose all self-control the second she came into contact with him. He took a sharp breath, expecting to snap...but he didn't. When he dared to open his eyes, he found that he was actually calmer than he was before. Her gentle touch and the touching concern in her voice had actually had a great calming on him, despite his expectation that it would do the opposite.

"I'm... alright Felicity, thank you for your concern." He said, taking a deep breath as he felt himself calming down. He searched around for a spray bottle with a black top, finding it quickly and gently handing it to her. "Felicity, this is a special spray I use on my webs. It makes them not-sticky without breaking them apart. You're going to want to use it on your bed so you can actually get out of it when you wake up."

"So you want me to spray down that hammock bed? What will you be doing then?" she asked. He gave her a smile, then started to walk around gathering supplies. She watched him skitter around his studio, grabbing some stuffing, some thread and a large sheet of sky blue fabric. He placed them all on a workbench together and opened up a small toolbox full of various sewing supplies. Once done, he turned back to her and spoke again.

"While you're spraying down, I'll to be making you a pillow to sleep on my dear."

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"A pillow?" Felicity asked, a note of disbelief in her voice. "You're making me a pillow? Like, from scratch?"

"Yes," he replied, chuckling at her, "I'm making you a pillow. You've seen the clothes I've tailored. Compared to them, a pillow is a very simple thing I can make fairly quickly. Though this is the last of my stuffing. I'll have to order more soon, in case I get a request to make a puffy costume or something." His face twisted in concentration and Felicity noticed that he seemed much more relaxed now than he was after he had finished the hammock. She let out a small laugh, relieved that he was feeling better.

"Well thank you." she said, knowing that her irksome blush had returned. She needed to look away from him for a minute and examined the bottle he handed her again to keep her eyes busy. "So, how exactly do I use this stuff Nathaniel? There aren't instructions written on the bottle or anything." Which was true, it just a simple bottle with a silver spray top on it and no markings of any kind. It was some kind of clear liquid so she hoped it wasn't anything too gross.

"Oh, it's easy to use. Just spray the webbing down thoroughly until it looks really wet, then let it air dry. The only remotely difficult part is going to be making sure that you get it spread across the hammock evenly, since it doesn't spray out as evenly or as cleanly as water does." He responded, not even looking at her as he threaded a needle to get started on making the pillow. She was tempted to watch him work again, but decided against it the second the thought of being literally stuck in bed popped into her head.

"Alright, well I'd better get to work with the non-stick sleeping spray." she said to him playfully. A satisfied feeling hit her when she saw him silently chuckle at her pun. She turned around, ready to head out when she noticed a music player hooked up in the corner of the room. It was an older player, but considering how well he kept his house clean she didn't doubt for a second that it still worked. "Hey, can we put on some music?" She asked him.

"Oh, that's a good idea." he said, looking around for a minute before picking up a small remote. "It is a bit quiet in here now that the nervous tension's died down, isn't it?" He pressed a button on the remote and some instrumental jazz music came on. It wasn't exceptionally soft, but it was definitely not jazz meant for a party. She shrugged and started to walk back over to the hammock as the sound of the music filled up the cave, completing the feeling that somebody definitely made their home here.

Jazz, huh? I guess it does kind of suit him. I wonder if he listens to anything else or if he's a jazz nut. She thought as she walked, her feet somewhat cold once she had stepped off of the large rug he kept on the floor of the studio. I wonder what else he likes to do? I mean, he clearly enjoys sewing but he has to do other stuff for fun, right? She took another look around while she walked, her eyes drifting to the flat screen TV he had with a large beanbag sofa a short distance away from it. Well, he probably doesn't have cable or satellite, so I'm guessing that TV is probably used for watching movies. There's a stand next to the TV that probably has a bunch of his favorites. Might have to sneak a peek at those later.

She nearly walked into the hammock since she was too busy craning her neck around, but managed to avoid getting stuck in it along with the dress she had become so fond of. Oh man, you'd think after what walking into that sign led to that I would've learned my lesson about rubber necking. She thought to herself with a smile. She adjusted the spray bottle in her hand and started to coat the hammock with whatever the stuff in the bottle was, doing her best to make sure the coating was completely even. He lives in the middle of a forest, she thought, her mind wandering back to her earlier musings as she sprayed. Maybe he likes to go for nature walks, especially at night when he doesn't have to worry about running into people. His cave is nowhere near a campground after all.

After a few minutes with the spray she was starting to get what Nathaniel meant. It was taking quite a lot of effort to keep the spray from gathering itself to the same spots, but once it was on the hammock itself, the spray didn't seem to move anymore. About four minutes passed in total before she felt she had done a good enough job of covering the hammock, making it look like it had been doused with a hose. Probably ought to go put this back. She thought and started to head back towards the studio. On her way, the jazz song had faded away and there was moment of silence before the next song played. She recognized the song immediately as one of her favorite songs ever, Adam Ant's 'Strip', started to play.