Mike & Karen Ch. 10

"Yes, but we can all agree that was a damned fine investment, girl," Mona chimed in from nearby, scrubbing away at a countertop. "He looked fine in that get-up."

"Well, you know you did something right when Mona starts channeling her grandmother's Alabama patois!" Lisa laughed.

"Mmmm, lawdy-lawd, honey!" the black girl quipped, fanning herself for effect. "I just wanna grow a whole field of that boy in his suit."

"Oh, God, stop, woman," Janet razzed Mona. "Keep it up and we'll be having chicken and dumplings for supper. They'll just magically appear."

"That sounds delightful, but I was planning on taking us to Barberian's Steak House as a reward for all our hard work after this," Karen mentioned. "We'll go back to the dorms, get changed, and head over. Sound good?"

"Oh, I don't have anything to wear to a place like Barberian's!" Lisa whined, pausing her mopping long enough to bounce on the balls of her feet.

"That's a vicious lie and you know it," Karen chided, not even turning to face her roommate, but just continuing to scrub. "I bought you that lovely dress not more than three weeks ago. Stop being such a mouse the minute you leave our bed."

Lisa blushed and returned to mopping.

"I've never been to Barberien's," Janet offered.

"Me neither," Mona agreed. "Is it as good as everyone says it is?"

"I'm taking us there, aren't I?" Karen pointed out. Mona and Janet considered and then nodded. Karen was the last person on earth to skimp if she decided that they needed a reward for their efforts. And there was simply no point in protesting, because you wouldn't win. They were all close friends, and each of them had their distinct role in the dynamic, but Karen was most certainly primus inter pares, and everyone was happy with that.

Some hours passed, and finally the cleaners were finished. The blonde woman Karen had begun helping looked around in astonishment. She could hardly believe what she was seeing.

"I ... I don't know what to say ..." she said, fumbling for words. "I've never seen it looking this good."

"Well, we're not out of the woods yet," Karen reminded her. "There's still tomorrow's meals and so on to look after. And yes, I'll have people to help you fill in that gap, but you'll need a new, permanent staff, of course."

The woman, whose name was Angie, considered: "I ... can probably convince most of them to come back, but I've gotta deal with the prick who made them leave in the first place, then. They won't come back if he's still here."

Karen looked around. "You said he was in charge of expenses, like paycheques and supplies and such?" Angie nodded.

"So get him fired for extreme health-code violations," Karen said simply. "I've got a list from the cleaning company of what they had to do to make the place look like this. I'll give you the list. Go talk to your bosses now. We'll be back here tomorrow with reinforcements."

"I can't believe you did this," Angie sighed, giving Karen an unexpected hug. Karen grimaced for a moment over the woman's shoulder, then returned the hug, knowing that her sundress was now consigned to a bargain bin. And she'd been so careful, too. "Thank you so much!"

"Thank me when this is all over," Karen said, pulling back from the hug and smiling. "We'll see you at six a.m. Ta!"

She then led her friends out of the mission and back toward campus. They were all in good spirits, but then Lisa thought of something.

"Um, didn't she say that she needed a crew of at least thirty people to run that place?" she queried. "We gotta run on the assumption that she won't get her old staff back so quickly. Are you gonna be able to find the people you need by tomorrow morning?"

"Not including we four, I can account for about fifteen volunteers already," Karen replied. "That means I need about a baker's dozen worth of students to step up for a day or two. Better to have too many for a few days than too little."

They made it back to the dorms and everyone showered and changed, getting ready for dinner. Karen found a different elegant sundress, with matching hat and clutch, while Lisa was wearing the deep green dress Karen had purchased for her so that she had something to wear if they went out. Mona met them, wearing slacks and a nice blouse. Janet, not surprisingly, was the last to show up, wearing a beige pantsuit, with a brown shirt and loose white tie.

"Lord, you look like Debbie Harry singing 'Sunday Girl,'" Karen had commented, making the other two laugh while Janet stuck her tongue out at her. They went to dinner, but none of the three managed to pry from Karen any details about her mysterious volunteers. They would simply have to wait and find out.

***

Jeanie raced forward, determined to accomplish something for her team. She hadn't killed a single foe yet, while managing to take out yet another member of her own team by mistake. To be fair, he had come racing around a corner from a direction he wasn't supposed to and spooked her. She'd squeaked in fright and pulled the trigger, shooting him in the balls. Insta-kill. He glowered at her as he was led off the playing field.

She skidded to a stop as someone on the opposing team rose up from behind a crate and took aim, firing at her. She scrambled behind a barrier, swearing as the pellets exploded on the other side of the concrete she was hiding behind. She heard the guy call out for support, yelling that he had her cornered.

She reached over the concrete barrier with her rifle and fired blindly in his general direction. She was pretty sure she'd seen heroes do that in movies before.

They weren't very good movies, however.

"C'mon out!" the guy called. "We've got you covered! We won't shoot the shit out of you if you come out with your arms up!"

Jeanie frowned in frustration as she considered her situation. She looked back toward her own side, hearing distant sounds, and realized that her teammates were nowhere near her. She'd become separated from them and was now isolated. She couldn't fight all these guys off. Hell, she probably couldn't even take down one of them before they redecorated her in scintillating clouds of colour.

Maybe ... maybe if she came out and surrendered, she could stall them long enough for her teammates to get the advantage? Could she sacrifice herself? Was that taking one for the team?

She sighed heavily and stood, slowly turning around and putting her arms over her head, her rifle in the air. She grimaced as she noticed two foes pointing their rifles at her. Damn, she thought there'd be more. She walked out from behind the barrier slowly.

"A'right, here I am," she announced to the guys standing maybe seven of so meters away from her. "You wanted me to surrender, right? The rules say I have to call out loudly 'I surrender, I'm dead!', right?"

"I can't believe you fell for this, you dumb bitch," the original foe who had pinned her laughed. "We're not accepting your surrender, you're dead. Waste 'er!"

Realizing she'd been tricked, Jeanie squeezed her eyes shut and tensed up, awaiting the inevitable, stinging impacts of the paintballs.

"Yndling!!" she heard her wife yell in desperation as Freja raced into view. Almost as if in slow motion, Jeanie saw Freja leap into the path of the oncoming projectiles, several of them. Freja's body shook and juddered as the paintballs exploded across her form, at least eight of them impacting her. Jeanie heard her grunt as one smacked Freja on the cheek.

"BASTARDS!" Jeanie shouted in outrage as she leaned out from behind Freja and began shooting wildly at her foes. They dodged the barrage and bolted away, laughing.

Trembling from the stinging around her body, Freja slowly turned to look at her wife. Jeanie put down her rifle and gazed into Freja's eyes. Well, she would have, except for the chalky blot of paintball dust that obscured her visor. Biting her lip, Jeanie used her thumb to clean the substance away, and smiled, her eyes shining.

"Y'didn't ... y'didn't have to do that, Rambo ..." she said, her voice quavering.

"Of course I did, my love," replied the Danish girl, nodding and smiling, despite the stinging around her body. Those damn pellets hurt. "I can never let you die, even if it only a game. I will always protect you."

They knew a referee was nearby, watching and waiting to escort Freja off the field, but she also seemed quite willing to let this romantic moment continue. They didn't happen that often during a paintball game, after all.

"Always?" Jeanie asked dreamily, her eyes shining.

"Always," Freja confirmed, slowly leaning in to kiss her wife ...

The shuffling of feet behind Jeanie and barks of excitement indicated that the foes had come around them and were now to her rear. Panic shot up the brunette's spine and she squealed and scuttled around behind her wife, using her as a shield.

Before Freja could object, Jeanie had crouched down, grabbed her wife's waist and thrust her forward, leading Freja to get pelted by another barrage of paintballs, even more than before. At least twelve now exploded across her while Jeanie hunkered low and squeezed her eyes shut.

Paintballs from another direction took down one foe and scattered the rest, followed by Mike and another teammate chasing them down. The referee led the dead foe off the field.

Silence followed as Freja stood still, her body trembling ever so slightly. With a growing sense of dread, Jeanie rose and slowly turned her wife around. Freja's hazel eyes looked back at her from behind the visor, but their characteristic warmth was missing, replaced with a flint-like hardness that made Jeanie wince inwardly.

"You ..." Freja said quietly.

"I ... well, two good things to remember," Jeanie said hastily, trying to smile as Freja seemed to loom larger and larger in her vision. "First, you protected me again, which you said you'd always do, so thanks! And, uh ... well, this time, you didn't get hit in the visor, so at least you can still see, right?"

Freja said nothing, but just continued to give her wife the hard-eye. Jeanie looked at the ground for a moment, fretted and then sighed. She looked back up at Freja and shrugged. "What's that Japanese word for ritual suicide again? Hairy Kerry?"

She turned her rifle muzzle inward, holding it against her midriff and preparing to pull the trigger on herself, when Freja swiftly snatched the weapon out of Jeanie's hands, glaring, and shot her at close range in the crotch.

"OWWWWW!" Jeanie howled in pain and distress before turning and fleeing before the wrath of her wife. Freja was hot on her heels, feeding another magazine of ammo into the rifle.

***

Alex slammed up against the wall next to his father, breathing hard, but grinning ferociously. Aside from the partial magazine left in his gun, he only had one reload left. Mike seemed to have discarded his rifle and was holding a pistol in each hand now. They were both back near their flag, guarding against the inevitable rush.

"How many of us're left?" Alex asked.

"Three, I think," Mike replied, looking down at his son. "Freja sacrificed herself to save Jeanie, and I can see everyone else sitting in our penalty box, if you will. So yeah, three."

Just then, Jeanie went speeding by, yelping in pain and protesting as a polychromatic Freja chased her, shooting her in the ass repeatedly with paintballs from the pink rifle she was carrying.

"Augh! Stop!" Jeanie howled. "I'm sorry I used you as a human shield! I'm sorry! Undskyld! There, I even said it in Swedish for you!"

"Ingen barmhjertighed for forrædere!" Freja snarled in outrage, shooting Jeanie's behind relentlessly. No matter how many layers of maxi-pads the brunette was protecting her derrière with, that had to hurt. "There is only death! And I am Dansk, you traitor!"

Mike and Alex watched in bewilderment as they disappeared form view, followed quickly by several referees. Mike looked down at his son. "Correction. We are two."

"And how many baddies we got left?" queried Alex.

Mike ducked his head around the tall barrier quickly to look at the opposite team's waiting area and did a quick count before looking back at his son. "Four on their bench, so eight."

"Four to one odds," Alex breathed.

"Yeah, I feel bad for them too," Mike agreed, smiling evilly. "They have us right where we want them."

"Would it surprise you to learn that my battle plan didn't involve anyone else at all?" Alex asked, smirking at his dad. "I always figured it would only you and I left before we won. Think we can take out eight by ourselves?"

Mike cocked his head and listened for a moment, as if he'd heard something. Motioning for Alex to be quiet, he stood up to his full height, reaching over the wall and pointing one of his pistols down the other side before pulling the trigger.

"OW! GODDAMMIT!!" someone yelled in pain and sudden frustration.

"Okay, seven ..." Alex corrected. "Three point five to one odds. Much better. You ready?"

Mike grinned ferociously and nodded, knowing that the true battle was about to begin. "See you in the Winner's Circle, son."

With two loud war-cries that startled their foes, the DeBourne warriors lunged out from behind the cover and went on the attack.

***

It was the third round of paintball. Freja and Jeanie sat quietly next to one another in the observation area, both still covered in powdery paint splotches. Freja's were an array of bright colours, Jeanie's exclusively pink, having come from her own paintball gun. The Danish girl was looking straight ahead resolutely, as if ignoring her wife. This had been the case since sitting out the second round.

Jeanie took a deep breath, her expression hesitant. She finally spoke. "Y'still mad?"

Freja sighed and hung her head. "No, yndling, I am not. I could not stay mad at you or Alexa for very long. You are my love and my life."

Jeanie exhaled in relief. "Good, I was worried. I didn't wanna sleep on the couch because I'm a coward."

Her wife smiled. "You are not a coward, you just ... get startled easily and are having a panic reflex."

"Maybe, but ... I mean, you were already dead, right?" Jeanie reasoned. "Haven't you ever seen a movie where someone uses a corpse as a shield from bullets?"

She smiled hopefully and tried to look cute. "No sense in both of us bein' dead, right?"

Jeanie leaned forward and tugged the top of Freja's shirt down slightly, making a dismayed face as she saw all the small, round bruises that peppered her neck, collarbone and breasts. "Ooh, owie. I'm sorry, Fre, I know those're all my fault. Forgive me?"

"Silly girl..." Fre murmured as she leaned into her wife. Their lips met and they kissed, with Jeanie almost whimpering in relief. She hated it when she thought Fre was mad at her.

Then her eyes snapped open and she squealed in shock and pain into Freja's mouth as the Danish girl pressed a paintball pistol to her breast and pulled the trigger. Jeanie collapsed backward from the kiss, her eyes wide and the colour draining from her skin. She gasped as she clutched her stinging breast, staring at her wife in disbelief. Freja smiled smugly and dangled the pistol on her finger by the trigger guard.

"Now I forgive you, yndling," Freja announced.

"Gnnnnnn, fuck," Jeanie gasped, still in shock. "God, that hurts. Shit, ow ..."

She then looked at her wife, eyes glinting. "I am so turned on right now. Let's fuck!"

Without another word, the two girls stood up and wiggled out of the waiting area and headed for the nearest available bathroom.

***

"That's what I'm talkin' about!" Alex yelled happily as they strolled out of the warehouse, with Alex carrying a trophy. He had survived and won all three rounds, with Mike dying in the last round protecting his son from a hail of paintballs so he could dive into their end zone while holding the enemy's flag.

"It was a good plan, Alex," Mike agreed, clapping his son on the back as he walked beside him. Alex was the faster runner, while Mike massed more and could take more hits. True, once the refs declared him out, he was obligated to stop, but by then, Alex was already landing in their home base and whooping in triumph. "They'd settled for trying to eliminate us all, eke out a win, but you just went for it. They weren't ready for a blitz."

"Zerg rush, a tried-and-true classic," Alex laughed. "Works every time."

"Unless it becomes a Leeroy Jenkins moment," Jeanie mused, walking behind them, hand-in-hand with Freja. Both girls looked rather flushed and disheveled after their bathroom workout. "Those happen, y'know."

"Not to my dad and I," Alex pointed out, bumping fists with his father. "We're unbeatable."

"Truer words were never spoken," Mike said, bipping on his key fob to unlock the massive SUV's doors. "Who's hungry after all that?"

"Well, Fre and I can't go out like this," Jeanie replied, gesturing to herself and her wife, who were still covered in paint splotches everywhere. "We gotta go home and shower and get laundry started before any of this sets in. Mind if we borrow your son? We kinda promised his wife we'd look after him."

"Works for me, it'll be nice to have the house to myself for a night," Mike answered, shrugging.

"Translation: he's gonna watch porn he and mom have made over the years," Alex said out of the side of his mouth to the two women.

"Hush, you ..." Mike grunted as they all piled into the vehicle, laughing.

***

"C'mon in, Alex, make yourself at home," Jeanie announced as she breezed in through the door of her condo, already shedding her T-shirt. "And that means no clothes, beeteedubs!"

"Like I have a problem with that," Alex replied with a smile, walking in while Freja brought up the rear and shut the door. "Want me to order food while you two get clean?"

Jeanie's head poked out of the bedroom, a wry expression on it. "No, duh. You're showering with us. Maybe you didn't get plastered with paintballs, but you're all sweaty and stuff. Can't have you stinking up our house. 'sides, we brought you back here to fuck, right?"

"Okay, just being polite and asking," Alex chuckled, shedding his clothing and leaving it over the back of a chair. Freja was standing near him, also getting undressed. He smiled as he admired her lean, toned frame. Like his wife, she had an athletic build, apparently from years of soccer. She had the smallest breasts of the three girls, he estimated a perky B-cup, whereas her wife was certainly a C and Alexa was a large D, same as her sister, his mom.

Freja had slender hips, and she kept her pussy shaved completely, just like Alexa and Jeanie. She saw him looking and smirked, turning to face him. "Are you seeing something you like, naughty boy?"

"Yeah, nothin's changed about that since the last time I saw it," Alex replied, feeling a stir in his now-visible cock. "Nothin' at all."

"Oh, you are having plans, then?" Freja teased, biting a fingernail and crooking one knee behind the other in a coy pose.

Alex moved up to her and took both her arms, pinning them behind her lower back and holding them there in one hand. Freja gasped at his assertiveness while he pressed his body to hers, his swelling tool now nestled against her pussy. Freja made a show of resisting, but that act evaporated as his free hand squeezed her breast.

"I think you'll like 'em ..." he said in her ear, feeling her shiver and already growing wet.

"Hey, no fair, getting started without me," Jeanie protested, swishing out of the bedroom, her curly brown hair flowing around her shoulders while her breasts jiggled enticingly. Her body, while still fit, was more lush than Freja's, as if it wasn't built for sports but simply for fucking. This suited Jeanie fine, since sex was her favourite form of exercise, without question. She had yet to meet the calories she couldn't burn away with a good, vigorous sex marathon. "We gonna move this into the shower as planned, or are we just gonna rut here in the living room like animals?"