Chapter 12

Axon

Ashley and I's first attempt at holding hands did not go well. I was ready to brace myself through the overwhelming sensations that flooded my body, but I had to admit, I was relieved when Ashley pulled away. Touching her was like getting struck by lightening, and that was a difficult sensation to hold onto.

Her idea of having me sit in the rain seemed solid enough. I was willing to try anything to be able to touch Ashley, not just for selfish reasons either. I knew it was important to her that she and I touch without me wincing, and I'd do anything to accomplish that. She'd mentioned Lumod as a possible mate earlier, which irritated me more than it should. Lumod was a good male, he just wasn't the male for Ashley. I was, or I wanted to be. Maybe if we could touch, we would have a better chance of luminesing.

"Let's do this." I looked down at Ashley and stepped into the rain. The cold drops of water hitting my skin weren't pleasant, but they weren't unpleasant either. They were just there. It was a sensory experience I'd learned to adapt to many seasons ago.

Ashley was standing in the entrance of the cave looking as beautiful as ever covered in a fur blanket that contrasted nicely with the light color of her hair.

She reached out her hand into the rain, palm up and smiled up at me with so much hope in her eyes that it made my chest ache. I needed this to work. I couldn't let Ashley down. Not again.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I stood motionless for a moment as I let the sensation of each raindrop filter through my mind. Each one was small and painless, but each one made an impact none-the-less.

"Okay, I'm ready."

I opened my eyes and slowly pressed my finger tips to Ashley's again. Where before, her touch felt like lightning, now it just felt like a pleasant spark. I continued pressing down my fingers to hers and there it was again. That small pleasant sizzle of electricity that was no longer overwhelming.

Taking a deep breath, I pressed my palm to hers until our skin was completely flush with each other.

"Ha!" I let out an involuntary laugh. I'd done it. We'd done it. We were touching, and it was pleasant.

"Hold up your other hand." I asked, not even trying to keep the eagerness out of my voice.

Ashley wore a bright smile as she held up her other hand. She seemed just as excited about this as I was, which warmed my heart even more. I wanted to touch Ashley, that was a given, but I wanted her to want my touch even more so.

I pressed my hand down against hers much faster this time and let out another victorious exhalation. I couldn't believe it. We were touching!

"Look! Are you seeing this?" I couldn't take my eyes off our joined hands. Only in my dreams did I think this could happen.

"I'm seeing it," there was a hint of amusement in her voice and I looked up to find her bright eyes twinkling with joy.

I intertwined my fingers with hers and reveled in the feeling of how warm she was and incredibly soft too. Was she this soft everywhere? I longed to touch every inch of her to find out.

I rubbed my thumb over the top of her hand and heard her heart rate increase. Did she like my touch?

In my eagerness, I attempted to pull Ashley in closer to me, but as soon as our arms touched below the wrist, the pleasant tingles of electricity turned back into lightning shooting through my veins.

I winched and Ashley backed away. She tried to untangle her hands from mine but I held onto her.

"Please! I'm not in pain." I begged. "The hands are fine. We can keep holding hands." My words rushed out of me as I desperately tried to convince her to hold onto our connection. I couldn't let go of her, not now, not when we'd come this far.

"Okay." The corner of her mouth turned up in a shy smile that she tried to hide by looking down at the ground. I think she liked that. She liked how desperate I was to touch her. I'd have to keep that in mind.

"Should we have you come out of the rain to see if you can keep holding my hand?"

I was hesitant to do so. I didn't want this moment to end, but realistically, this plan wouldn't work if I couldn't touch Ashley outside of the rain.

"Yeah, that sounds good," I agreed.

Ashley took a step backward and I took a step forward into the cave.

I braced myself for a bolt of fire to course through my veins, but it didn't come. Our hands were still intertwined and all I felt was Ashley's pleasant softness beneath my much larger blue hands.

"Well? How do you feel?" she asked nervously, chewing her bottom lip.

"Good. I feel really good. In fact, I think we should hold hands for the rest of the day."

Ashley laughed at my suggestion, but as soon as our eyes met, her laughter died and her cheeks turned pink.

"I-I'd be okay with that." Her heart started to race again and I took that as a good sign.

"Good. Uh, you want to explore more caves?" I took a step and was distracted by the wet sound my shorts made against my skin.

"Do you want to change first?" Ashley asked, chewing her bottom lip again.

"Yeah, that'd probably be for the best," I agreed.

I quickly realized my only real option was to put dry pants on. I couldn't put a shirt on without letting go of Ashley's hand and I wasn't ready to do that yet. I didn't think I'd ever be ready to do that. Thoughts of letting go, just to never be able to hold her hand again ran through my mind.

Would my sensory issues somehow be worse next time? I couldn't risk it. I'd just have to convince her to let me hold her hand for the rest of the day, perhaps for all of time. I couldn't let this end. This was the connection I'd been yearning for, for so long.

Ashley was still waiting for me, so I turned my back to her and quickly untied my wet shorts and replaced them with my dry pants.

"Ready?" She asked when I had stopped moving.

"Yep, I'm ready." She turned around and her eyes darted from my face to my still shirtless chest. Then her cheeks turned that pretty pink that I liked so much.

"I'm a little warm, so I thought I'd leave my shirt off for now," I lied.

"Oh, okay. Which way should we go?" she turned her attention back to the three tunnel entrances before us.

I pointed to the middle tunnel. It was, by far, the least explored tunnel of the three and I wanted to give Ashley a real adventure.

As we walked, I found my pace was a little too fast and my arm stretched behind me. Ashley picked up her walking speed. I didn't want her to walk too fast though, so I slowed down a bit more until we were in sync at a leisurely pace down the dark tunnel.

It was just a few days ago when Ashley had pressed herself against the wall to avoid touching me, and now here we were, walking hand-in-hand. I didn't think life could get much better than this.