Chocolate Avalanche

Chocolate Avalanche
Linda/Linables/Imprefectlin


"Well, there go any kind of plans I had for this afternoon..."

Lock was standing at a window in his and his cohort's tree house (Which they still, at seventeen, demanded to live in) and looking out over the town square of Halloweentown. It was quite a spectacle at this point in time, as it was completely covered with a gooey blanket of molten chocolate. The townspeople were all trudging along through the sticky mess in attempts to clean it, while the mayor stood up on a high pedestal and gave orders with his megaphone.

It had happened just about an hour ago - the huge cauldron-like pots that were being used to melt chocolate for Halloween candy in the town square had bubbled over, likely due to an accidental adjustment of the temperature to fifty degrees higher than necessary. Chocolate had gone flying everywhere, caking the square and nearby streets of Halloweentown. Some had gotten stuck in the chocolate in spots where it was particularly deep, others had been airlifted away with third degree chocolate burns, and still others were using any method they could think of to get rid of the chocolate. Some of the more eager children (And Barrel, who had been helping with the work only to sneak free candy) had even taken to eating paths through it.

But really, Lock didn't care about any of that. All he knew was that the chocolate had spilled down to surround the base of their tree house, stopping all entry and exit. Any plans he'd had that involved going out were now out of question. And this, he thought, inevitably meant a boring evening stuck in the tree house Not that the tree house wasn't exciting in its own way, but he'd had such brilliant ideas, all of which involved going out!

Sighing dejectedly, Lock flopped down onto the ratty couch in the 'living room' of the tree house. He was pulling on a frayed thread with his tail to entertain himself when Shock walked into the room.

"Chocolate avalanche still stranding you here, huh?" she said in a rather amused way, sitting down next to him on the couch.

Lock grumbled in response, and a short period of silence followed. During this time, an old, all too familiar feeling began to wash over Lock. Sitting together with Shock, just the two of them alone with no interruptions - among other things - always brought this particular feeling. 'Damn it,' Lock thought to himself. 'Not again....I gotta stop thinking about her in this way! She'd either laugh in my face or punch my lights out....' But at hard as he tried, Lock could never shake off the feeling. He'd been good at lying to himself for as long as he'd been having this feeling, but in the back of his mind he knew he had a crush on her. More than that, even. If he didn't know any better, he thought, he'd think he was beginning to fall in love with her.

But he tried to not allow himself to consider that option, because he was sure that her returning his feelings was impossible. Ridiculous. Unthinkable. What would she see in him? Apparently she tolerated him enough to share a tree house for over seven years, and sure she would get all flushed when they wrestled during arguments and he pinned her down under him, but that didn't mean anything! Lock consistently convinced himself that it was so. Shock would never consider any kind of romantic relationship with him. But even if he was sure of it, it still did hurt damn badly.

He squirmed slightly on the couch, resisting the urge to inch closer to her. But boy did he want to. Over the years, Shock had gotten taller, let her hair grow out past her shoulders, grown into her nose and filled out a little in the right places. She wasn't gorgeous like some of the teenage daughters of the vampires, with their long dark flowy hair and deep red eyes, but she sure had gotten rather pretty. Lock had lost count of the times his eyes had wandered to her she wasn't looking. Maybe he was just so used to her image, having grown up alongside her, but there was definitely something about her that kept his attention.

And of course he'd always liked and respected her, even when he hadn't admitted it. She was brilliant at plans, a quick thinker, smooth, collected and in control. Those qualities had only grown over the years, along with the maturing of her looks, and all of this now manifested itself in the young woman sitting next to Lock, unaware of his inner struggles. Lock sighed aloud, though not meaning to, and she finally turned toward him. Noticing that he seemed down, Shock decided to offer something that had always put Lock in a good mood.

"You want a taste of the Halloween candy that Barrel swiped from town square yesterday? You know, when it wasn't covered in chocolate?"

Lock looked up at this statement.

"But doesn't he keep it in that locked box in his room?"

Shock grinned.

"Yeah, but I've been able to pick that box for years. He hasn't noticed yet. I just blame it on the spiders."

Lock smiled and nodded, and they made their way to Barrel's room, where Shock (True to her word) picked the locked box and took out a handful of chocolate confections. They decided to go into Lock's room to eat them, since it had the best view. You could see spiral hill and the ghost-ridden graveyards and pumpkin patches in the distance, and the sky above was unblocked and stretched out for miles like a black blanket.

As she followed Lock into his room, Shock took in the sights and smells - there was the usual mess there, things thrown helter skelter and one large spider's web in the corner where the walls met the ceiling. The slight smell of sulfur and ashes permeated through the room. Every time she got a chance to be in Lock's room, Shock would secretly imprint it in her memory for when she needed a backdrop for her out-of-hand daydreams. She'd kept quiet about it, but she'd grown very fond of the devil-boy over the years. That fondness had turned into affection, and the affection had begun to blossom into what she was sure was love. These kinds of thoughts were dangerous territory though, so Shock tried her best to not think them very much.

But there were times, like now, that she couldn't help herself. Now, sitting with Lock in his room, enjoying the view and some candy. Shock was sure that any kind of relationship was impossible, but in these rare times that they were alone, she might let herself consider how things would be if it wasn't.

Shock licked a bit of chocolate off of her fingers and frowned. Her mind took her back to the only time she'd even talked about her feelings - a time when she'd run off to see Queen Sally, who she'd formed an odd sort of friendship with, to escape her cohort's childish arguing for a while. The conversation had probably stemmed from Shock remarking about Stella, Jack and Sally's infant daughter, whom Sally had been feeding at the time. Talking of babies had led to talking of lovers and talking of lovers had inevitably led to the question: "So do you have any romantic feelings for someone special?"

Shock had somehow expected the question, but she still flinched when she heard it. Of course she had those feelings, she'd had them for what seemed like forever and they seemed to get stronger every day. But what, was she supposed to actually admit to that?

Sally was very intuitive, though, and she realized that Shock was holding something in. She persisted, and she finally managed to coax the secret out the young witch. Then Sally, ever the romantic, had urged Shock to follow her heart and be true to her feelings. But somehow, Shock thought, that wasn't going to be as easy to do as it was to say.

This thought brought her back into the moment and she sighed quietly. Turning around, she saw Lock sitting on his bed, facing the window and popping a chocolate into his mouth every now and then. Shock couldn't help thinking that he looked pretty good - she'd witnessed him growing into this rather handsome young man, and right now it seemed to be more evident than ever. He still wore his fiery red hair in the same style, but Shock thought it suited him. His eyes still glinted with a pale yellow color, and his color of choice for attire was still bright red, but he'd gotten tall (He stood above her and Barrel easily) and....as much as she hated to admit she noticed....built.

Shock mentally reprimanded herself for letting her mind stray into this territory again, but no matter how she tried she couldn't stop looking at him. Finally, cursing herself silently, she got up and slowly walked over to sit next to him. Lock hadn't really been paying attention to anything; he'd been unusually quiet and lost in thought, but he heard the bed squeak when Shock sat down and he looked over.

"Hey," he said, chewing a piece of candy. "What's up?"

Shock was silent for a moment, then, gathering her courage, she spoke. "Um....well....you know, we might be stuck in the tree house...together....for a while, and it's kind of boring, so um....do you wanna just maybe talk?"

Lock shrugged his shoulders. "Sure, I guess," he said, putting down the rest of his candy. "Whaddaya wanna talk about?"

There was another short period of silence, then Shock spoke up again. "Well....um...." She scooted closer and turned to Lock, but kept her head bowed as not to look at him. Had she looked up, she might have noticed the slightly pink color Lock's cheeks had started to take on from her being so close.

"If I tell you something and you don't like what I say....can you promise not to hold it against me or ridicule me for the rest of our afterlives?"

Lock blinked and stared for a second, realizing that Shock was about to ask him something important.

"Uh, yeah, sure thing. What is it?"

Shock lifted head head to face him, but closed her eyes.

"I think I love you."

There was silence as Lock took in this new revelation, and after a while Shock begun to get nervous. She slowly opened her eyes, frightened and excited at the same time. What she saw was Lock's face slowly but surely breaking into the widest smile she'd ever seen him wear. It spread from one reddened cheek to another, and glowed so much that he looked more like a cherub from Valentine Town than a sneaky fire-loving devil.

Shock was just working up the courage to look him in the eyes and smile herself when she felt Lock pin her down on the bed, quick as a flash, and press their lips together. After the initial shock wore off and Shock regained a coherent flow of thought, she kissed back - all the while feeling herself seem to melt into the blanket and lose touch with anything that didn't involve Lock and how great this moment with him was.

As they parted, they locked eyes for the first time since Shock had sat down next to him. They were both flushed and slightly panting, but above all happier than they could remember being for a long time.

"Shock," Lock said, smiling.

"Hmmmhh....yes?"

"I love you too. And you have no idea how long I've wanted to say that."

Shock grinned.

"Try me."

And with that, she pulled him to her again, and he gave her the best kiss he could muster.

Shock's tall hat had tumbled off when they'd fallen back, and perhaps the loss of one article of clothing led to the need to lose another - or perhaps it was just the heat that seemed to soar up every second in the room - but soon Shock's hands had slipped under Lock's red shirt and were pulling it up and off of him. Lock, feeling the need to return the favor, hurriedly unbuttoned Shock's dress and peeled it off. A short amount of time later, the breeze floating in through the crack in the window alerted the two that they were out of clothing to remove. The cool breeze wisped over Lock's bare back, and he clutched Shock to him, making a wonderful juxtaposition of cool and warm between the breeze and Shock's flushed skin.

It seemed unreal for a moment - just earlier that day Lock had been silently pining for his comrade, and now she was here. In his bed. Under him. Naked. Once that fact hit home, he slowly, almost warily, looked down at her, running his eyes from her face to her collarbones to her chest to her stomach to her thighs, and all the way down her legs. Seeing her now, here, in the dim light - all of her smooth curves and fine lines and soft angles and unique imperfections - made her seem all the more beautiful. Almost fragile. Now, Lock knew much better than to ever think that Shock was fragile. She was as tough and unbreakable as him, if not even more. But he realized that in this state, she was at her most vonerable. And letting him see her like this....meant she trusted him. And he couldn't be happier about that.

He reached out to touch her, and for the time he really got to admire the surprising softness of her skin. Of course he'd brushed up against her and even held her hand many times, but now he got a chance to really revel in it. Her skin rivaled the moon in paleness under the dim light, the perfect complement to the feel of it. Lock ran his hands over her body, earning small gasps periodically, and he couldn't believe he was actually doing so. But this was real, and he relished the fact.

But on the other hand, the utter realness of the situation also brought up a nagging question from the back of his head. If they were going down the road he assumed - hoped - they were going, would he be hurting her? A sudden worried expression crossed his face and he looked down at Shock.

"Hey," he said quietly. "I....I don't wanna do anything unless you're completely sure you want it."

Shock, both touched and anxious for what was to come, rolled her eyes playfully and quickly kissed Lock on the lips.

"I love you, Lock. That's all I need to know to be sure I want this."

Lock's lips curved up into a mischievous smile, and he accepted her offer wholeheartedly by leaning down to nip at her neck. He also brought a hand up and closed it slowly over one of Shock's breasts. They had filled out nicely over the years and fit just as well under Lock's hand. He gently gave one a squeeze, then moved over to the other while trailing his tongue and teeth down her neck, egged on by her building moans.

Lock ran his hand from her breasts down the side of Shock's body, dipping in ever-so-slightly between her thighs, not quite touching and making her squirm delightfully under him. He teased her for a few seconds more, then obliged and dipped a finger into her center, making Shock gasp and go rigid before gripping the blanket and starting to buck her hips upward. Lock slipped in another finger and slid them slowly in and out, building up the pace steadily and stopping just when Shock was getting close.

She began to pout from the loss, but everything was swallowed up in the load moan that came from feeling something larger slip inside her. Lock pressed his lips quickly against hers to take her mind of any pain she felt, and once her iron grip on his shoulders softened, he lifted his head and smiled at her. She returned the smile and bucked her hips up slightly, which Lock understood as a signal to continue. He pulled out slightly, then pushed back in, experimenting with the feeling. It was amazing - the friction and slickness was unlike anything he'd felt and Lock was going to relish every moment he felt it, while in turn hopefully giving the same back to Shock.

He was, and her moans began to get louder as his thrusts got faster and harder. She gripped onto him tight, stroking hair, skin, anything she could reach. She moaned and Lock's senses were being overwhelmed with everything about her and now - how Shock smelled of violets and tasted like peppermint, how her moans and gasps sounded, how her sweat-slicked smooth skin felt against his own and how he seemed to see only her.

They were both building each other up faster and faster, and in the haze of motion it only took Lock softly stroking Shock's side with his devil's tail to make her go over. She arched up like a cat into him, gripping him close and holding him as he followed her. Lock grunted and went rigid as he came, then collapsed onto Shock on the covers. He slowly opened his eyes, which he hadn't even realized he had closed, and smiled at Shock. She smiled back, and he wrapped his arms around her as he slowly slipped out of her.

They lay there quietly for a few moments, content just with each other's presence. Then Shock whispered groggily, "Hey....when d'ya think they'll have the chocolate cleared up?"

Lock tightened his grip on her body.

"....Hopefully not for a long time."

And for the first time, both were truly thankful for the so-called disaster that day had seen.