Over the Road, Part 2, I walked 3000 Miles for a Strip-Tease?! (Patreon)

Gwendolyn's eyes fluttered as she strained to continue concentrating on the road ahead of her.  She growled under her breath, turning the steering wheel to straighten out the truck.  Her wheels had begun to drift into the outermost lane, just barely skimming over the rumble stripes.  Even that bare touch of her wheels upon them made her teeth grit at the uncomfortable vibrations meant to shake drivers out of potentially falling asleep.

She knew she was driving longer than she should have.  She had a lot on her mind.  And right now, she was very aware that she was probably pushing herself too hard.  She wasn't even sure where the time had gone.  Spotting a rest area finally coming up, she begrudgingly pulled off the highway and onto it.  She checked the time as she rolled to a stop, one of the only trucks currently parked here, the nearest more than 6 spaces away.  3:04 A.M.  She sighed and logged it onto her nearby pad as she turned the truck's engine off, letting it rumble down into its own rest.

Turning in her chair, she groaned as she stood up, head bowed to avoid bumping it on the low-feeling ceiling of the cab, and squeezed between the seats into the back of her personal quarters.  The locks were all engaged, alarms primed, and she really needed to get some shut-eye.

She checked her reflection in her locker door.  Fluffy brown fur, blonde hair, and bleary blue eyes stared back at her.  Her clothes were rumpled.  Sniffing at them, she grimaced.  Without a word, she shucked herself out of her coveralls and blouse, stuffing them into her green, canvas laundry bag to join the pile of other clothes she needed to get washed.

Now clad in only her bra and panties, she gave herself a quick touch-up of deodorant from her toiletry bag.  The truck didn't have running water or other amenities like that.  She looked at herself in the mirror, turning from side to side and inspecting her big, fluffy Ursid body.  There were times she was damn proud of her curves in all their bodacious, bountiful dimensions.  And there were others that she hated how her belly was so round, or that her thighs, powerful as they were, still jiggled a bit when she walked or posed.  The chafing was also sometimes an issue.  Her back ached sometimes, although her naturally dense musculature and insistence on heavy lifting helped mitigate that with broad shoulders and powerful upper body strength.

She flexed at herself, only slightly mollified by how her fur rippled over her as the muscles beneath tightened at her command.  There was still quite a bit of fluff and plushness to her.  Most Ursid were like that though: either muscle-bound brutes or rounded, curvy teddy bears.  While combing her paws through her hair, she arched her back just a bit, trying to gauge where on that scale she fell.  She averaged somehow between the two with equal assets from both stereotypes, with extra assets besides.  Her eyes strayed down her reflection to the front of her underwear, currently a rose and lotus flower petal-strewn affair.  The rounded bulge at the front didn't stick out too much, and probably wouldn't at all if she wore a holster for it.  The problem was she hated wearing them; it was hard to find them in her size.

Sighing, Gwen reached into her mini dresser and pulled out a fresh pair and a sports bra to replace the one she was currently wearing.  Her paws lowered slowly to grasp the hem of her underwear, starting to pull them off.   Her mind remained, hazy and unfocused, on other things.  She was forgetting something...but what could it be?

***A few moments earlier***

Laris' eyes slowly fluttered open.  Jostled awake by the truck pulling to a stop, he looked around his new environment with first bleary-eyed confusion, then alarm and then a rushing sense of finality and defeat.  He had gone as far as his body had allowed him, and finally reached his threshold.  As the engine slowly rumbled away into silence, he lay there, staring up at the ceiling of the cab, arms and legs stretched out wide and not even touching the borders of his padded bedding.

It was outrageously soft and he took a deep, soft sigh as his trembling muscles all finally tried to relax from the nearly constant state of tenseness he had been trapped in since running away from home.  His arms and legs ached so badly.  His hair felt matted and gross, and he knew that he needed a shave.  He had been on the road for little over a month, taking rides or stowing away for them to cross state lines where he could.

He had mapped out his route as well as he could after leaving his 'home' in Castle Rock, Colorado.  Over 3000 total miles separated him from his goal: Alaska.  He knew it was stupid, but the hope of achieving his goal was the only thing he had left.  Things had been at their utmost worst the last thirty-odd days.  The angry words and faces he had left behind still burned at the back of his mind.  He blinked hard, dispelling their vileness and toxicity back to where they needed to stay: far away from his attention or concentration.

It helped to distract him when he heard clattering from somewhere behind and below him.  He heard heavy footsteps and muted breathing of someone close by.  For a split second, his whole body tensed up again and his instincts flared to angry readiness once again.  Had he been picked up again?  Where was he?  Whose truck was he in?  Then the image of soft, blue eyes staring down at him, the smell of honey and coffee and maple syrup, and the warmest, gentlest embrace he had ever felt, came to him.

Gwen.  The Ursid trucker woman.

For whatever reason, she had placed him here, in her personal cab-bed, and continued on her route.  He only hoped she was going in the same direction as he had been: North.  He glanced once out of the tiny, curtain-covered window but saw only blackness outside.  The lights of the truck were still on but dim, so that no one would try and park in the same place as this one most likely.  The truck shifted again and he heard more shuffling.

Sighing, he sat up in the bed and wormed his way over to the separating curtain.  That was when he looked down at himself and blinked.  He was only wearing his underclothes and socks.  When had that happened?  Had she undressed him?  He felt a surge of discomfort before he rationalized to himself that she probably wasn't the type to take advantage of an unconscious guy.  Besides, what Anthro was going to go for a Human like him?

He caught himself thinking about how soft her hug had been, how beautiful her eyes, how amazingly curvy her body was... He shook his head hard and reached for the curtain.  He had just started to pull it to the side, slowly revealing the area below when a flash of brown fur appeared in his immediate field of vision.  He froze in place.  What was she doing?

That was when Laris noticed Gwen fumbling at her waist.  A moment later, she stooped over, bending at the waist, and tugged down her coverall pants from around her hips, letting them slither to the floor before she stepped up and out of the pant legs.  His eyes went wide as he was greeted with a completely unobstructed view of a gloriously large and rounded Ursid ass in floral pink panties.  A short brown tail poked up over the back hem.  Crinkly red lace lined the hems, and the undercurve of her cheeks made the panties strain a bit more to try and keep her modesty covered.

She stood back up straight, grabbing a hold of her blouse in her paws and pulling that off of herself too.  His cheeks rapidly began to heat and he felt like he should look away but couldn't.  His eyes remained locked as, almost as if she were moving in slow motion, he saw the shirt travel up over a soft belly and higher still.  The mountains beneath were revealed.  Under the blouse, Gwen wore a heavily straining black sports bra, the fabric doing its utmost to try and hold back the single biggest pair of female anatomy he had ever seen.  His eyes felt like they were nearly bugging out of his skull.

She had to know what she was doing, right?!  She turned from side to side, gripping various parts of her and squeezing, rubbing, jostling.  She even flexed in the mirror hanging from the door of her locker, making her previously plush, soft body harden in ways he hadn't expected to find so alluring.  She even did that incredibly sexual, strip-tease style lifting of her hair with her paws and arching her back, which just made her chest and rear stick out all the more.

Had he seriously walked 3000 miles for a strip-tease?!

Her paws drifted down her frame as she eyed herself more in the mirror and he couldn't help leaning in a bit more out of the bed and out from behind the curtain that hid him.  Her paws traveled over her belly and continued down.  The fingers linked slowly into the hem of her panties and began to, torturously slow, pull them down.  Her hips began to show as she turned to face him more fully.

That was when Laris, face blushing fit to burst, saw the shape right at the front.  His green eyes, already wide, went even wider.  There was no mistaking what that was, not unless she was smuggling full-size daikon radish down there!  Unable to stop himself, Laris jerked back before he saw more than he already should have been.  His face was burning so hot that he felt like ti should have caught aflame at this point.  His elbow thunked hard against the wall, producing a heavy thud.

All at once, all sound stopped in the cab of the truck.  The gentle rustling of clothing halted.  For a second, frozen in place, Laris dared to hope that she might not have noticed, or that, of course, she remembered she wasn't alone.  He had no idea how she might react.  Maybe she would assume he had just woken up and hadn't been staring?

Whatever he supposed her reaction would be, he was wrong.

The curtain flew to the side with a savage yank of a huge, clawed paw.  A rolling snarl filled the cabin with its echoing strength as the heavily-built, brown furred Ursid loomed in front of him, still only clad in bra and panties.  Her eyes had flashed from those gorgeous bright blue to distinct tints of red and he smelled a harsh, metallic scent in the air now.  Aggression.

Their faces locked as Laris backpedaled frantically, holding his hands up on reflex to try and protect himself or ward off the blow that would absolutely kill him with a single swipe.  He'd never seen a living creature so big, so angry, or so...beautiful before.  Her blonde hair surrounded her livid, ursine features in a mane, her ears twitching rapidly, and her muzzle rolling up around her long, sharp fangs, showing black lips.  Every strand of her fur stood on end and her claws glittered in the dim lighting.

So this was how he died after all.

Then Gwen blinked, paw still raised, and seemed to process what she was looking at.  Red faded back to sky-blue and her lips fell back down over her fangs, hiding them again.  Her ears stood fully erect, facing forward directly at him, as was her entire attention.  Her paw relaxed and she glanced from it, to him, and back.  She lowered it then to her side before holding both out in a placating gesture.  She even took a couple of steps back.

"S-sorry..." she stuttered out in slightly rasping voice.  She cleared her throat, never once looking away from him.  "I...uhh...forgot...anyone else was...here."  She tried to smile sheepishly but it faded as she saw he was still frozen in place, face pale, nearly paralyzed from shock and fear.  "Oh Spirits..." she muttered.  "Oh sweetie, uhh...I am so...so sorry..."  Her voice fell away and she seemed to be scrambling for anything else to say or explain herself.  She gestured with her paws for several seconds before she slumped her shoulders in defeat.

Finally daring to breathe, Laris sat up a bit more and took a deep breath, relieving the pressure in his chest as she truly did seem like she was not actually going to clobber him.  She wouldn't look at him at all now.  "It's...it's fine..." he croaked out.  She glanced at him once and then away again, rubbing sheepishly with her paw at the arm she had previously been about to swing with.  "I...uhh...guess I...should have probably...announced myself or something..."

"No, no sugar," she immediately protested.  "I can be such an airhead at times...picking up a guy and letting him sleep in my cabin, forgetting he's there...nearly..."  Her ears deflated more and her bottom lip trembled.  Actual tears brimmed her eyes.  She blinked hard several times and wiped at them hard with a big paw.  "And after you've gone through...so much..."

Laris stared at the trembling, nearly bawling Ursid as she continued to wipe at her eyes with the knuckles of her paws.  One of them lowered then and dug its claws into her arm again, furrowing the fur around it.  Tighter and tighter she squeezed, biting her lower lip and beginning to tremble more.  A single drop of blood oozed out from around one claw, trailing down her chocolate brown fur.

Without thinking, Laris whipped himself out of the bed, stumbled down the stepladder, nearly falling onto his face, and lurched against Gwen as soon as his feet touched the chilly floor of the truck floor.  His head swam, muscles screamed, but his hands fell onto her paw and grabbed a firm hold of it between both of his.  She blinked in shock down at him.

"Please don't do that," he breathed out, panting at that expenditure of effort and rush of adrenaline that had his heart immediately pounding.  She seemed confused before both their eyes fell to her paw.  Although their levels of strength must have been immensely different, he somehow extricated her bloody-tipped claws from her arm and stroked the paw comfortingly.  "Please..."  he gave her a small, hopefully comforting grin.  "There wasn't any harm done."  His eyes softened.  "Please don't hurt yourself..."

Gwen stared down at him in utter shock, eyes still tearful and wide.  She looked at her arm and then back up into his face.  "B-but...I..." she drawled out, adorable accent making his head pound slightly less.  He'd always liked big country girls in shows.

He shook his head.  "No ma'am, Ms. Gwen," he chided her.  "Sure you forgot I was here, but I know that this is probably all new to you.  It's...new to me too."  He glanced away then back up at her firmly.  "You didn't hurt me.  Hell, you probably saved me.  Only idiots hitchhike in Canada in Autumn right?"  he winked once despite that his energy was once again beginning to flag.  His arms and legs shook a bit but he refused to settle until he was sure she was fully comforted.

The Anthro woman took a deep breath, admittedly making her chest swell before his eyes before she exhaled, and then shakily nodded.  "Okay...I'm...I'm all right," she half-whispered.  She tugged once on her paw and he let go despite how much he found he didn't want to.  Her fur was amazingly soft.  She looked at her bloody claw tips and grimaced, hiding the paw then behind her back.  "Stupid..." she muttered angrily, most likely at herself, before she sighed again.  Her big eyes focused back onto him.  Only now did she seem to process a bit more of their situation.  "Oh hunny, you don't need to be standing up right now!" she exclaimed.

"It's really no troub~" he started to say, only to abruptly be scooped up in her fur and slung over one burly shoulder.  Her entire body was plush and soft, but also very firm beneath him as she climbed up the few rungs of the stepladder and plopped him once again down on the bedding.  "Hey," he exclaimed indignantly, trying to sit up forward again, only for her to place a paw on his chest and force him flat.

"You need to conserve your strength, sweetie," she told him in a motherly, chiding tone.  "You walked yourself nearly to death.  You collapsed when I was hugging you.  You're in no condition to be worrying about little ol' me."

"I'm not a kid!" he objected as she fluffed up a pillow and placed it beneath his head.  "I'm a grown ass adult."

"A grown ass adult who nearly got himself killed from exposure, exhaustion, and who knows what else," she huffed, sitting on the edge of the bed now as she continued to tuck him in.

"Lay off!" he snapped, flinging his arms up and struggling back out of the suffocating cocoon he was being trapped in.  She blinked in surprise as he sat up again, arms no longer shaking.  He glared at her.  "Paws to yourself."

She immediately folded them in across her lap.  "All right," she said, voice a bit hurt.  He immediately felt guilty.  "I'm sorry.  I didn't mean to..."

Laris abruptly felt all his anger slip away and he looked away from her.  His shoulders slumped.  "...I'm sorry," he grunted out without thinking.  At her confused glance he flopped back down.  "I know you're just...trying to help.  I just don't like being...coddled and everything.  Treated like a kid."

"Oh..." she mumbled and sheepishly rubbed at her uninjured arm with the still stained paw.  "I wasn't..."

"I know you weren't...trying to," he grunted.  "You were just..." he trailed off since he couldn't really be sure what she had been trying to do other than just take care of him.  A perfect stranger was being more kind and gentle with him than probably anyone had in years among people he had grown up knowing.  Maybe it was just the uncertainty of not knowing Gwen as well as he might have liked, but he knew he already respected her a lot more than...any of them.

"I still feel like I should make it up to you," she mumbled.  "For...well...almost..."

"Mauling me?" he joked, voice dry but still containing a chuckle.

"Yeah..."

"Well," he admitted, sitting up a bit more and eyeing her up and down once.  She seemed to catch his gaze, her own now uncertain but curious.  "There is...something I might ask of you, given our situation."

"S-sure?" she tentatively offered.  One strand of her golden locks fell over her hair, partially obscuring one beautiful eye.

He stared hard at her, suddenly and wholly able to appreciate just how beautiful this Ursid was.  It wasn't just her absolutely ridiculous amount of assets she had on display, nor the size of her which was also an immensely fascinating detail.  It was the gentleness she exuded, the calm quiet and the way her whole face lit up when she smiled even a little.  He shyly looked away suddenly, worried that, if they kept making eye contact like that, she'd somehow read his mind.

"Could you...put on clothes?" he asked.

Gwen shifted beside him as if shocked by the question.  Through the corner of his eyes, he saw her glance down at herself.  It took a second or two for her to process the entirety of the situation that he had been struggling to deal with.  Her ears folded against her skull as her brain finished buffering and her nose crinkled.  All at once she buried her face in her paws and bent over nearly double.

"OH MY SPIRITS!" she growled out in a muffled voice, making it ring around the interior of the cab.  "I am so sorry!"  She hurriedly grabbed up the blanket and flung it over herself to conceal her barely clad form.  It hung off of her like a shawl or a parka, not truly able to hide everything.

Stripped of his own cover, Laris couldn't help it.  He laughed.  It scorched his throat and made his head ring like a bell that had been struck but it didn't matter.  He laughed long and hard at how adorably flustered she had become.  He clapped a hand over his face and continued to chortle.

"S-stop laughing at me!" Gwen demanded then.  He chanced a look at her, still giggling, and saw she was glaring down at him.  She had puffed out her cheeks, eyes glittering angrily with embarrassment from beneath her mop of golden bangs.  "It ain't funny!"

"No, it isn't," he agreed, wiping at his eyes and collapsing fully onto his back.  "It's fucking hilarious!"  A fresh wave of giggles overtook him and he indulged in them.  It felt good to laugh like this again, even in as absurd a situation as he found himself.

Gwen continued to glare at him until she jerked.  She bit down hard on her bottom lip to contain something bubbling up inside of her.  It was no use.  She bellowed with laughter too a second later.  "Y-y-yeah it is!" she agreed with him.  "Here I am...a-a-almost flatten you cuz' I thought you were somebody that snuck into my truck...and I'm practically almost naked!"  She devolved into another fit of full-body laughs, doing wonderful things to her body as the blanket slid off of her again.

As their laughter died down at last, leaving them smiling with sore cheeks, an awkwardness was quick to set in.  Gwen hurried to hop down off the bed to the floor below, making the entire truck jostle.  She didn't try and close the curtain again but he respectfully kept his eyes off of her as she pulled on a pair of very stretchy shorts, a blue tank top that only came to halfway down her soft belly and left part of it still exposed, and then returned to sit with him on the bed, leaving her footpaws bare.  He had since draped the blanket over his lap again for the sake of only wearing his boxers and shirt at the moment.

With her now dressed, they lapsed into yet more and more silence that seemed to stretch on unendingly for some time.  Every time one of them thought of something to say and looked over at the other, their eyes would meet, their faces would flush, and they would look away again.  It was rapidly becoming like a weight around Laris' shoulders; this uncomfortable, oppressive silence.

He cleared his throat at long last, forcing his rasping voice again to action.  "I just wanted to say," he stated, getting Gwen's attention immediately.  "Thank you.  For...helping me."  He hated saying the words but he knew he had to.  Otherwise he would consider himself the height of ungrateful.  And grateful he was.  "You...really went out of your way to do it."

"It wasn't any trouble, sugar cube," she muttered shyly, twirling a paw in her gorgeous blonde hair.  "I'm happy to do it.  If we don't help each other out every now and then, what kinda world would we be living?"  She flashed him a bright smile without showing any teeth.  Her ears wiggled when she did.

'It's like she stepped out of a Hallmark card...' he thought, unable to believe how kind and selfless someone like her could be.

"Still..." he coughed.  "I feel like I owe you.  I like to pay back my debts so...just tell me what I can do to do that and I will."  He kept his voice firm, unwilling to compromise on this point.

She returned to looking away from him.  Her face had become uncomfortable and nervous again.  She seemed to know that denying his statement would only make him more insistent so it was no use fighting.  She didn't say anything to counter it, but she also wasn't forthcoming with ideas.

"Can I..." he trailed off, trying to think.  He noticed his wallet was laying next to him and a surge of yet more gratitude to her for placing it there rushed through him.  It was like she had sensed that it was all he really had left in the world.  He opened its faded, scuffed, leather folds and inspected his dwindling pile of cash.  "Buy you...a tank of gas or...something?" he offered.

She shook her head, hair waving.  Her ears twitched again.  "No, I don't need money.  I have a Flight card from my employer for that sorta thing, darling, but it's very nice of you to offer.  As far as...paying me back," she squirmed.  Her face was becoming more and more uncomfortable.  It didn't fit her demeanor thus far; someone like her would have been much more believable as a bubbling ball of energy, kindness, and huge smiles, as she had been before.  Even when she had been stern or firm with him, it gave him a sense that she truly was that kind of person.  "All I'll ask is...a question.  Maybe...three if that's all right?"

"Sure, ask away," he fired back immediately.  He reconsidered immediately as she brightened and he held up a hand.  "But I can choose to...skip a question if I don't want to answer it right away."

Gwen nodded.  "That sounds fair," she grinned.  "All right, first question: where are you going?"

"That's easy," Laris retorted.  "Alaska."

Her eyes went wide.  "Alaska?!" she scoffed, almost cracking a smile before she saw that he seemed dead serious.  "Why in the world is a little guy like you..." he growled, not liking being patronized.  She adjusted herself immediately, changing the question.  "That...seems like a long way to walk from Colorado," she said hesitantly, keeping her tone vague.

He shrugged, crossing his arms and his eyes growing distant.  "Sure," he agreed.  "And it's probably the stupidest thing I've ever done."

"Then why do it?" she probed.

His face hardened.  "Skip."

The Anthro woman shrugged.  "All right," she said and leaned back onto her arms to support her, thinking hard.  He tried not to notice how the curve of her spine in that position made her chest stand out all the more, each one of her ursine globes bigger around and across than his head.  How did her back not ache all the time?   She paused for a bit before her next question came to her.  "Can I ask about your name?"

"My name?"

"Yeah," she giggled.  "I heard of a lot of different names in my time, met all sorts of folks of every color and size as could be.  But never once I heard a name like Laris.  Don't get me wrong, it's real pretty.  Just wondering where it comes from."  She met his eyes again.  "If that's all right to ask?"

Laris grinned despite himself.  "No, that's fine.  My parents are...a bit corny I guess.  We grew up in Colorado but used to take tons of trips to Canada, Alaska, even once or twice to Russia.  We've always liked the cold, snow, wind, you name it.  They named me and my twin sister for the northern lights.  On the night we were born, there was this massive blackout in Anchorage, Alaska.  It caused a lot of problems as everyone struggled to get the power back.  But, right through the window, overlooking the city and the shore, there were the lights.  That night, they were so bright that they seemed to outshine the sun, Mom always said.  The doctors delivered us by their glow."

Gwen caught on, looking star-struck.  "So...Laris?"  He nodded.  "Laris Borean?  As in... 'Aurora Borealis'?"

He chuckled ruefully, face coloring.  "Yeah...my sister got the more normal name.  Aurora Bright."

Gwen smirked and actually snorted.  "You're right, that is super cheesy."  She giggled again and he only pretended to give her a stern glare.  "But I like it all the same," she hummed, swaying her big paws off the side of the shelf-bed.  "Laris..."  She beamed then.  "A uniquely beautiful name for a uniquely beautiful little guy like you."

He scowled.  "I'm not little," he grumbled.  His face felt hot and he crossed his arms, looking away from her.  "And beautiful is a weird way to describe a guy."

Gwendolyn huffed, drawing his gaze again.  She visible swelled before his gaze, sitting up straight and flexing as if to make a point.  "First of all, everybody is small compared to an Ursid, sweetheart," she teased, sticking out her tongue at him slightly and winking, relaxing her bulk and returning to her usual appearance as a rounded, teddy-bear of a woman.  "Comes with the territory and breed.  Second of all, beautiful is subjective and nongendered."

Laris rolled his eyes.  "Well then, you're a very handsome woman.  Your name is perfectly fitting for you too," he shot back, actually allowing himself to feel smug and confident enough to praise her like that.

It didn't have the desired effect.  Gwen only beamed more than she had been.  Her ears twitched rapidly above her head.  "Well aren't you sweet?!" she declared and then leaned toward him onto one hip.  Her face grew dangerously close and he flinched back out of instinct right before her muzzle grazed his cheek, causing her to miss her target.

Gwen blinked and then realized what she'd done.  Her happy-go-lucky demeanor vanished and she leaned back away from him, playing with her paws and shuffling awkwardly in place.  "Sorry," she said immediately.  "Don't know why I just tried to do that.  Just part of...my personality I guess."

Immediately, Laris felt guilty all of a sudden.  He chastised himself harshly for reacting like that, even if her gesture had been incredibly surprising.  One second they had been...flirting...?  And then... but had it really been such a bad thing?  He hated himself for losing out on the chance to find out just for a second if those fuzzy lips were as soft as they looked.

"I'm sorry too..." he grated out.  "I just...I don't like people being..."

"Close," she finished for him.  She raised a paw.  "I get it, hunny.  You've been through a lot, I can imagine, and you aren't super eager to have someone all over you or into your personal space.  You don't trust me yet, and that's more than understandable."

"It's not that!" he tried to argue but he sighed and then just thumped his head back against the wall.  "Well...okay yeah maybe a little.  It's not anything against you or..."

She shook her head, calming from her flustered embarrassment quickly.  "No, no, that was an invasion of your comfort zone and I promise not to do it again.  No matter how easy it feels when it comes to flirting with you"  She held up a paw.  "Spirits' oath."

Laris looked down from her, his mouth forming into a fine line.  "Well...it's not like... I would have minded if you did...do it again," he muttered out loud before he could stop himself, ignoring her last comment.  "It just surprised me is all," he was quick to add.  No point in being sheepish about it.

"Oh...?" she drawled, a gleam coming to her eyes then as well as an underlying, self-satisfied chuckle to her voice.  "That right?  You wouldn't mind it?"

"Skip," he snapped, face coloring.

She giggled again.  A short silence stretched between them once more before she seemed to steel herself.  She adjusted her seat on the bedding and clenched her paws.  "On...that note then," she began, voice hesitant.  She forced herself to keep going.  "Earlier when...uhh...I was...changing..."  Immediately, all his bravado and stubbornness melted away, leaving his stomach clenching and his face rapidly heating.  Hers seemed to as well, ears folded down against her head and nose crinkling again.  Even her fur bunched up around her face, becoming more fluffy.  "Did you...happen to see anything?"

Laris opened his mouth to answer but no words came out.  He just stared at her as she glanced at him, waiting for his response.  His hands knuckled tightly into the blanket covering him and a long-hidden rush of unfamiliar emotions coursed through him.  His mind flashed back to just seemingly moments ago when he had been watching her changing like a creep.

"For the record," he finally was able to grate out.  "I am very, very sorry for peeking.  I'm not that kind of guy, at all.   I just happened to poke my head out and you were already..."

She hummed.  "That's very noble of you, Laris," she said.  "But...for the record, that's not what I asked."  She stayed completely stationary, watching him.  "Did you...see anything, right before our little...incident?"

If the back of the cab's shelf-bed wasn't already pressing against his spine, he would have backed away.  There was something there, lurking beneath the sweet, Canadian country-girl vibe her voice and accent portrayed her with.  He wasn't sure if that sparkle in her eyes was one of danger or something else.  "I'm...not sure what you...mean..." he lied.

Gwen turned more slowly around to face him.  Her big, furry, thunder thighs parted a bit as she adjusted her seat, drawing special attention to how the shorts rode up even higher along them, creasing towards her still covered, by the angle and cloth, groin.  Damnit, he'd looked.  He glanced back up at her face.  "You don't have to lie," she stated softly, that twinkle still lurking there.  Her Aggression had begun to climb again, subtle but present.  He wasn't used to the different tones of smell the hormonal response connotated, since he hadn't grown up much around Anthros.  "All I'm asking is...if you saw anything?"

He clammed up, mouth so tightly pressed together that it might have been sewn shut.

Gwen didn't move otherwise, just watching him.  "You can just nod or shake your head, Laris."

Sullenly, he nodded and looked down a bit, away from her face so he didn't have to see her get angry at him.  He'd become so used to his honesty driving people away, just for seeing things he wasn't supposed to.  But he knew that lying was never a good replacement.  His father, one of the Human veterans of the Legion, had always espoused that: "Honesty is the bedrock of all Moral creeds.  Without truth, we cannot know ourselves, or trust in one another.  Show Integrity, always, even should it lead to your suffering.  It is how one measures themselves."

How ironic and hypocritical that his father had lied so much for so long...

A soft brush of fur against his chin made him shakily lift his face to be level with her gaze once again.  His eyes went wide.  Gwen didn't look upset.  She was smiling.  Sure, her ears were folded down and her fur still fluffed up, in what amounted to a human's blush he realized, but she didn't look at all angry at him for telling the truth.

"Thank you for telling me," she told him.  "I promise, I'm not mad."

He met her eyes until he couldn't bear them anymore and he looked away again.  She giggled and removed her furry finger from cupping his chin and they stayed quiet for a while.

Finally, she spoke up again.  "I...would understand if you don't want to talk about it further.  That being said, it's getting pretty late."  She glanced at her watch and grimaced.  "Ok, is very late."

He felt guilty immediately.  "Oh...right...and you're...a truck driver," he noted.

She nodded.

"And you have a shipment to deliver?"

She nodded again.  "To Alaska.  I do a lot of cross-country trips like this a year, but with winter closing in, this'll be my last one until spring.  The pay isn't worth the danger driving over the road when the straight-line winds, black ice, and snow drifts start piling up and causing wrecks."

He felt a surge of hope that gave him the confidence he needed.  "Can I...ask for one favor then?  I know I owe you a lot already."

Her eyes brightened up and she looked him in the eye again, waiting for him to spit it out.  Once more, she nodded, hair waving, muzzle wide in an earnest, patient smile.

"Could I ask you for a ride?"

Her face broke in another twinkling grin.  "Well sure but only if you buy me dinner first, darling," she giggled, adding in a salacious wink.

"Done."

Her smile slid off her face and she stared at him completely shocked.  "Uhh..." she drawled out, trying to smile again but it seemed she was too surprised for some reason.  "I was...uhh...I was kidding..."

His heart sank.  "Oh..."  He sighed.  "I mean I get it...you don't know me any better than I know you and..."

She waved her paws, getting his attention again.  "That's not what I meant!" she laughed.  Her fur was fluffed up again for some reason and her ears folded flat but occasionally twitching.  "I mean...that's not what I thought you meant!"  She took a deep breath.  "I'd be happy to drive you as long as we're going the same way.  Better than dropping you off somewhere before then, not knowing if you'll make it to wherever you're going alive or dead.  The guilt of that would eat me alive!"

Relief washed over him.  "Oh thank god..." he muttered.  "Thank you, Gwen, you have no idea how much that means."  She nodded, ears fluttering again.  Then something nagged at him.  "What...did you think I meant?"

"Hmm?"

"By...the dinner thing?  Before?"

She flushed again.  "W-well we were...that is..."  She grumbled to herself, rolling a paw as if that would help her find the words she was struggling to voice.  "Given what we were just talking about and...how easy it is for me to flirt with you..." she began.  At his confused look, she pointed to her lips.  "The kiss thing?" she explained, hopefully.  He nodded, understanding that at least even if he made him blush.  "I was just...being playful."

"About what?" he asked, utterly lost.

"About the whole 'give you a ride' thing."  She growled to herself and rubbed at her temples with a paw.  "I'm sorry, being a trucker, it's real easy to slip up and make innuendos all the time.  Between me and the others I know, they're just second nature.  We talk rough but it's just jokes."  She glanced away from him then.  "Mostly..." she added underneath her breath.

For a second, Laris just sat there, confused.  Then, when her leg twitched and the fabric of her shorts strained a bit more.  That was when it clicked.  "Oh..." he murmured.  A second later, the full weight of the joke hit him.  "Oh!"  For a second he was stunned.  And then he started laughing again.  "OH!"  He hadn't laughed so hard so often in a long time.  "Oh that's what you meant!  'Give me a ride, buy me dinner first'."  He cackled more.

Gwen huffed then.  Wiping at his eyes, he was shocked out of his reverie to see her looking actually a bit upset.  He blinked in surprise.

"No reason to be rude about it..." she huffed, exhaling hard through her muzzle.

The humor of the situation dissipated immediately.  "N-no I wasn't..." he stammered.  "I wasn't making fun of it or anything!"

"No, no," she growled under her breath as she spoke.  "I get it.  Not a lot of guys are into it.  I understand."

"That's not what I meant..." he tried to say.

"Sure it's been a while," she kept going, crossing her arms and drawing into herself sullenly.  "But it's not like I was gonna force it on you or anything...just a turn of phrase..."

"Gwen!" he said loudly, getting her attention at last.  He sighed.  "I didn't mean to make it sound like I was laughing at you.  I just now got the joke.  I didn't expect it to be that funny but it was."  He grinned hesitantly as she still seemed reticent to believe him.  "Give me a ride?  Buy you dinner first?"  He raised his eyebrows, actually smiling at her.  "It was funny."

She shrugged.  "It's not that funny," she huffed cutely.

"Well it isn't if you're somehow thinking I'd be against it," he shot back at her.

That got her attention.  This time it was her eyes that went wide as dinner plates as she stared back at him.  Her mouth even fell open a bit.  "Come again for Honey-Maple?" she squeaked out in a voice that did not at all belong to a huge, over eight-foot-tall Ursid trucker.

He sighed and looked away, suddenly feeling sheepish again.  "I'm just saying," he grumbled.  "No, some people aren't that open-minded.  Some are.  That's all."

"Well..." she rumbled beside him and then trailed off into silence for a second.  "Fair enough then."  He glanced at her once to see her, to his shock and immediate endearment, was looking down and away from him.  A soft smile graced her features and she was again twirling a finger in her thick hair.  Then she yawned.  Long teeth flashed and she rubbed at her eyes.  "For now...I think this Momma Bear's been awake way too long."  She turned and crawled more fully up onto the bed.

He nodded.  "I totally understand," he told her.  "Do you want me to go...somewhere else?"

"Why?" she asked, glancing back at him as she patted the multiple pillows around the area into more acceptable positions.  "There ain't more than one bed on this rig.  And sadly, while I'd love to be a gracious host, I can't speak in the driver's seat."

"So...should I then?" he asked.  He totally understood her needing her rest, given occupation and all, and didn't want to intrude on her much needed sleep.  "I can sleep just about anywhere.  I can even take the passenger seat if I can borrow a blanket."

She had just then finished moving things around and looked back at him over her fluffy shoulder.  "What are you talking about, sugar?" she asked, arching an eyebrow.  "You can sleep here with me.  I ain't gonna roll over and eat you or something.  If you're worried about that sorta thing."  She cocked her head to the side quizzically.

He flushed.  "W-well...no...I just didn't want to intrude," he tried to explain.

"Then...why not?" she probed.  "I'd actually really like a bed partner like you.  It gets real lonely out here on the road, and cold.  You'll freeze down there in the cab, and up here you have space, blankets, pillows, and even a big, fluffy Ursid to snuggle with if you're okay with that."

He looked down shyly, not sure what to say.  It sounded...wonderful.

"Laris," she chuckled, turning around more on her knees to face him, grabbing his attention once more.  Her chest swayed alarming despite her shirt and bra holding her assets in, drawing his eyes hypnotically before they jerked back up to hers.  "Would you mind sharing my bed with me?"  Her tone was warm, gentle, unassuming, and kind.

His mouth clamped shut.

"You can nod or just shake your head if you want to," she teased him once again, just as before.

Laris sighed and nodded.  "Whatever...makes you the most comfortable," he relented.

"You sure about that phrasing?" she teased.  "I might use you for a body pillow."

"There are...worse ways to die," he joked.  "But yeah...whatever you like.  I'm really tired too."  Just how tired he was had begun to hit him and his eyes burned with the weight of holding them open.  "I'd be happy to share your bed, Gwen."

She beamed.  "Good!"  She sat up onto her knees, shuffled back a step or two, and then flopped down onto her piled up pillows.  She patted the space beside her, the other paw pulling the nearby blanket over more.  "Then come on in, snuggle-buddy."  She giggled in that perfect mixed accent of country farm girl and Canadian babe.

Unable to resist her adorable charm and the lure of an open, warm bed for the first time in over a month, Laris crawled hesitantly over and wormed his way down into the bedding alongside her.  The blanket immediately was pulled over them both up to his shoulders, or her elbow, and then she delicately slid a bit closer, pressing all sorts of fluffy softness and firmness at the same time against him.

"There!" she chuckled above him as his head sank onto the pillows she had arranged for him.  "You warm?"  He nodded, facing away from her on his side as she spooned him.  "Good."  She reached up and turned off the overhead light above them.  Darkness washed over them like a wave, immediately calming him rather than putting him on edge.  "You mind if I...hug you?"

"Would it decrease your opinion of me if I said 'Please do'?" he joked back weakly.

"Not at all," she murmured, voice soft.  One of her huge arms draped across him lightly, keeping most of her weight off but giving him an immediate sense of comfort and security he had been lacking for so long.  Something wet and cold brushed his hair, followed by a soft pop.  "Goodnight, Laris," she murmured.

"Goodnight..." he yawned back and then, emboldened by their position, his exhaustion, and the fact that she had just indeed kissed the back of his head as lightly as possible, he leaned back.  Turning his head, he brushed her furry chin with his mouth and then quickly rolled back over.  "Gwen."  His eyes closed despite his burning cheeks.  He was out in seconds.

Gwen meanwhile growled softly as he kissed her back in that simple little fashion.  She watched him breathe as he seemed to immediately pass out in her arms before she settled down and closed her own eyes.  This was...nice.  Really nice.  His little body conformed against her bigger, plush one so well.  His hair smelled but not in a bad way, and despite his firm, hardened athletic muscles from being on his own and on the road for who knew how long, he felt wonderful pressed up against her.

Too wonderful.

His comment before blasted into her mind as he shifted in his sleep, unintentionally forcing her to grind herself ever so slightly against his boxer-clad rear.  The twinge that motion caused shot lightning through her veins and she scooted her hips back away from his on instinct.  She glared down at where their lower bodies were covered by the blanket.

'Quiet you...' she snarled inside her mind.  'He's trusting me not to hurt him or take advantage of him while he's asleep.'

'But he's perfect...' whined another voice.  'He's half dressed, cuddled up against me...and he said...'

'I know what he said!' she snapped at herself.  She dismissed the images her mind started to form.  Yes, it had been a while since she'd actually had a partner and not just a toy and erotic novels to read at night during her rest stops.  Yes, he'd all but stated he wasn't repulsed by it.  But she wasn't about to...

'We could always...' her mind started to say again.  'Wake him up nice and gentle...explore him...tend to his needs...see just how far we could go...It's been so long...'  Her inner beast hummed to life a bit more as she dared to imagine, following that train of thought.  Wake him up with soft stroking touches, gentle kisses and licks.  Reassure him he was safe, offer to take some of that no doubt nearly crippling stress away.

He would feel so good beneath her paws, both for her sake as well as his own.  He wasn't the first smaller lover she had broken in.  She could be so gentle, at least until she had him addicted to her and begging her to go harder.  She wouldn't even be opposed to letting him do what he wanted in return, return the favor, so to speak.  Her paw began to slowly wander, a gentle hum settling into her loins.  Maybe...just one taste...

"No!" she snarled out loud under her breath, jerking herself out of her fantasies.

Beside her, Laris groaned softly and fidgeted.  She waited with baited breath but he settled back down.  His face was pinched and uncomfortable and he had started to fidget.  His legs spasmed and his hands began to clench.  He was having a nightmare.

All thoughts of what she had been pondering and internally fighting herself about vanished.  She nestled back against him firmly, ignoring the now blazing discomfort at her groin as she hugged the Human against her.  "Shh..." she whispered into his ear.  "Shh, Laris...Gwen's got you...Momma Honey Maple is right here."

He calmed slowly, still moaning under his breath and fitfully whining a second later.  She stroked his cheek with a furry finger, pressing a kiss to it afterward.  The smell and taste of his skin were wonderful and he responded with a gentle exhale.  His features calmed.  His shaking subsided.

Gwen sighed softly and cuddled back against him as he once more slept peacefully.

'Ok...' said her animal side.  'Not now...maybe later, if he wants, and we talk to him about it...but not now.'

'Not now,' she agreed.  She eyed Laris beside her.  'What happened to you during all this time...?' she wondered.  A moment later, she shook her head and snuggled in even closer, ignoring her arousal until it died away entirely, leaving her to spoon her little Human passenger into blissful comfort.  'It don't matter to me...' she thought sleepily, already starting to drift off.  He felt that nice.  'Because I'm gonna take care of you for as long as you let me.  You deserve to be happy  Whether I get to indulge or not, I'm happy to just be able to give you one night's rest where you know for sure you're safe.'

He smiled in his sleep, just a little, but it was enough.  He had such a wonderful smile.

***TBC!***

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