a/n: This is the story of what happened overnight in my 11 Part Harmony Challenge Story posted at Writers Ranch, "Kid: Almost Persuaded". Kid, who has been a soldier for the last three years, is startled when his wife disguises herself as a Confederate soldier and joins the Army to find him. Here's their reunion. Louise and Kid found themselves on the hard ground, kissing passionately, hands roaming over one another slowly. Kid drew back and looked into her eyes. They had been eighteen year old newlyweds when he left her behind; now they were twenty-one and the three intervening years had changed them both tremendously. For her, the lonely nights and worry, and the tragedy of losing her family, had made the three years feel like a hundred. For him, the daily torture of war and separation from her had hardened and toughened him. He was no longer a boy, like he was even on his wedding day. She saw in his face that he was a man now, and part of her longed for the boy he had replaced. She ran her eyes over him; the slightly grizzled face, the longer hair were different from the baby-faced husband she remembered. The constant marching and fighting had left him with a more muscular body, she noted as she ran her hands over him. For a moment she was a little uneasy; it was like holding a stranger after all the years apart. But Kid's gentle murmuring voice and his strong, tender hands were the same, and she relaxed in his arms again. Kid's eyes were dark with desire as he looked down at her in the moonlight; he reached down and untied the binding from around her breasts, and bent to take a nipple in his mouth, gently sucking while kneading with his hand. Her breath caught in her throat as he slowly teased her, murmuring her name. They slowly undressed, their breaths laboring as they kissed and explored each other again. Kid knelt between her parted legs and looked down at her, stroking her thighs with his fingers. "Missed you," he said, even as he placed one hand by her side and guided himself into her with the other. Lou gasped a little; it had been so long since she had been with him that she needed a moment to adjust. He gently eased himself in fully, waiting for her to be ready, before beginning to move back and forth over her. The woods were silent around them, except for their soft grunting and moaning. Tears came into her eyes as she watched him, supporting himself above her on his arms, as he made love to her again, at long last. The identification discs she had bought and sent to him years ago dangled down between them, glistening in the moonlight; she reached up with one hand and flung them by their cord over his shoulder, running her hand back down afterwards. As her hand passed over his shoulder, something else caught her eye in the moonlight. "Kid! My God," she gasped. She was staring at his shoulder, astonished. "Oh, my wound? I wrote you about that, didn't I?" Kid said, pausing with difficulty. "I didn't think it looked that bad -" "Not that," she said. "This," she continued, pointing to an inscription tattooed on his bicep. "You got a tattoo!" she said, shocked. Kid, still deep inside her, grimaced. "Can we talk about that a little later?" "When did you get it?" she persisted, propping herself up on her elbows. She didn't seem to find their unseemly position a problem, as she examined the tattoo with interest. Sighing, Kid pulled out of her and rolled on his side. "I got it about two months ago, I was drunk, the boys were all getting them, and it seemed like a good idea at the time. Like it?" he asked, flexing the arm. "It doesn't seem like something you'd do if you were sober," she agreed. "But I like it." She traced the six letters with a finger. "My name . . . does this mean you belong to me?" "Yes, property of Louise," he murmured, kissing and nipping at her neck. "It says so in two places." "You have another one? Where is it?" she said curiously, scanning him. "I drank a lot that night." She craned her neck, and looked over his shoulder and downwards. "You didn't," she said, laughing. "Afraid so." Inspecting the other tattoo, she grinned. "Well you must have loosened up quite a bit in the army, Kid. But they spelled my name wrong on this one." "Fortunately nobody but you will ever see it," he laughed, pulling her back down. He didn't immediately begin to make love to her again, but just stared at her, like he did when Teaspoon had pronounced them man and wife, and told him to kiss his bride. He couldn't believe she was really here, and was content for a few moments just looking into her eyes as he stroked her hair tenderly. He was alarmed when she started crying softly. "Lou? You okay?" he murmured. "I just can't believe I found you and we're here together again," she said, crying openly now. He smiled patiently down at her. When he'd left her behind, he had never dreamed how much of their lives the war would steal from them. He hadn't foreseen how much suffering they would endure and for how long. He wiped her tears away with his thumb, cupping her face in his hand, shushing her. "No tears now," he begged her. Smiling through his own tears, he said, "Buck up there, Corporal. Be my brave little soldier; after all, we're together now. No time for tears in this man's army." She smiled bravely up at him and placed her hand over his. "Why do you keep staring, Kid?" she murmured, dropping her eyes and rubbing his arm with her hand. He had kept looking at her in the moonlight. "I'm making a memory," he said. "I always want to remember how beautiful you look right now. I'm memorizing you." "Kid," she moaned, as he pulled her leg over his and felt for the opening between her legs. Finding it, he slipped a finger inside, stroking her as he leaned in and touched his mouth to hers again. She clutched his face and kissed back, softly at first, then more deeply. Reaching between them, she grasped him for a moment, stroking, before hooking her leg around his waist and sliding down, fitting herself over his manhood again. Moving inside her, he put his arms around her and reached for her breast with his now freed hand. She moaned, clutching his waist with her arm and crooked leg, and they made love side by side on the ground for several minutes. As their lovemaking grew more insistent, more passionate, with her legs wrapped around him he pulled up to his knees, raising her hips upwards still joined to him, and rapidly thrust into her as her back and shoulders lay on the ground, over and over. Her back arched against him, her hands waved helplessly as he pounded into her gently but insistently. Never stopping their rocking motion, she pushed him back on his haunches, and rose up to sit astride him, her arms wrapped around his neck, face to face. The sensations began to increase even more in intensity and she bounced up and down on him rapidly, squirming and bucking and whining his name. Wild eyed, she begged and whimpered for more, harder, faster; he rolled her onto her back and lay on top of her, keeping his weight off with his arms, and gave her what she begged for, what he wanted to give so much. They crashed over the edge, joined together and heaving for breath. Lou looked up at Kid, dazed. "I think I might have fainted for a minute," she gasped, amazed at the intensity of her feelings. A sweaty Kid grinned down at her. "Me too," he laughed. "I guess we had a lot stored up after three years." She nodded, drowsiness coming on now after her long march and battle that day followed by this exertion. "Just the same, I'd rather not wait another three years for the next time," she said, yawning. He rolled onto the ground next to her. "Agreed," he said, feeling around for their clothes and handing hers to her. He pulled on his longjohns and held out his arms for her to crawl into happily. After they kissed goodnight, she dropped off contentedly in his arms, as he lay watching her. He had an odd sense of foreboding, about what he couldn't say. He brushed the hair from her face tenderly. He didn't know why he felt it necessary, but something in him told him to continue watching over her protectively, to burn the memory of her face in his mind, and sleep took hours to find him that night. Continued in Harmony Challenge "Jimmy: It Should Have Been Me" at the Writers Ranch. Email Ellie TYR EXPRESSions Home