Morning Reflections

Afternoon Revelations

Author's Note: I had two reviews requesting more material, either a continuation of my last one, or a separate story. I decided to go with a continuation of sorts. Proud Heart re-thinks her feelings of Brave Heart, but doesn't want to say so. He becomes very uncomfortable when he notices her taking an unusual interest in him. Takes place almost directly after the events in the first chapter...this is that afternoon. As I said before, criticism is welcome, but flames will be deleted. This kind of story is not for everyone, and it isn't just sex for the sake of sex. Any and all sexual contact will be tender and heart-felt. Please read and review. Thank you.

The roar awakened her, and she sat up suddenly with a yelp. "What in the wide world!" cried Proud Heart, glancing around wildly. According to her clock radio, it was around 10:30 AM, and she was later than usual in rising. She got out of bed, and went to her window. Brave Heart's cave wasn't far from her house, and even though his wasn't the only dwelling near hers, she had no doubt that the roar had originated from him. After all, he was the only lion around. Nothing seemed to be amiss, and the roar wasn't followed by his trademark "CHARGE!!". Whatever had caused him to roar must have only surprised him. Or...

She had to wonder about the nature of that roar, for it had occurred a few times before, sounding much the same. It didn't sound aggressive, exactly, but there was a certain strain to it, as if he had been out of breath. Had he been...

Proud Heart shook her head decicively. If he had been playing with himself, that was his business, and his alone. Closing the curtains, she stifled a giggle. There was a certain naughty thrill to knowing someone was masturbating, when they didn't know that you knew. Oh, she knew it was inappropriate to delight in that knowledge, but she also knew that it was really no big deal. It was a normal bodily function, similar to eating and sleeping, but different in many, many ways.

She went about her morning grooming; bathing in a tub full of bubbles, blowdrying her fur, then brushing it until it was glossy and smooth. Proud Heart always took great pride in her appearance, and she enjoyed the admiring looks she got from Brave Heart Lion. She smiled. She remembered when they were barely out of adolescence and he had asked her out. That had been years ago, before she had given any thought to dating and to males. She hadn't been ready, and she had hated to break his heart. Now she often found her thoughts turning towards that handsome lion. He had been very cavalier about it when she had turned him down, but she had seen in his eyes just how heartbroken he was. She really wished she could have said yes to him, if only to keep from seeing that look on his face...

Proud Heart sighed. He really was a sweetheart...why had she ever turned him down? Well, she knew the answer to that. She wasn't ready. She did love him, but not in the same way she loved him now. The way she saw it, she had blown her chances with him years ago. If only she knew...but she didn't know. To this day, they remained close friends, as they all did, and there wasn't any sort of strain between them. He hadn't spoken of his interest since, so he must have moved on...Proud Heart, it seemed, had moved back. She knew she could have any one of the Care Bear or Care Bear Cousin males she wanted...but the one she wanted was the one who had wanted her before, the one she had turned down. She wanted Brave Heart.

What did Brave Heart think about when he touched himself? More to the point, who did he think about? Perhaps Cheer Bear...no. Not her. Proud Heart herself? Now she was just being silly. Supposing she did let him know she was interested in him? How would he react? Maybe he would tell her it was too late...She shook her head. She had to stop thinking so much. Why ruin a good friendship with thoughts of...romance? Sex? What? She didn't know. She just knew that she was confused...and she realized that she had been rubbing her paw between her legs as she thought. She paused, then smiled and continued. She often did this while she was alone, touched herself and thought about Brave Heart...it didn't take her long to bring herself to a sweet, long-lasting climax.

***

Brave Heart arrived back at the Forest of Feelings sooner than he had planned. During a routine Caring Mission, he had slipped on a waxed floor and hurt his ankle. The pain hadn't been too bad at first, but it proceeded to get worse and worse as the day wore on, until he just had to go home. He touched down in front of his cave just as Proud Heart was coming out to inspect her garden. She looked up as he landed, and walked over to his car.

"You're back early. Is everything all right?" she asked.

"Oh, just dandy..." he snorted, but he was smiling. "I twisted my ankle, so I had to come home."

He got out of his Cloudmobile, and almost pitched forward onto his face. She steadied him, and their eyes met. She had opened her mouth to say "Careful!", but the word died on her lips as she looked at him.

Brave Heart froze just as she did. This would be the perfect opportunity to...To what? To kiss her? Hah...She'd slap his muzzle right off his face. He turned his head a bit, and said, "Thanks...I, um...could use a little help..." he trailed off, blushing a bit. He was acting like a lovesick idiot!

Proud Heart privately rejoiced. So he was still interested in her! She slipped her arm around his waist, and draped his arm over her shoulders, saying, "Certainly. Do you think it's broken?"

"Nahhh." he shook his head, "Just a sprain. I didn't hear anything snap."

"That doesn't mean anything." she told him, helping him limp to his door, and turning the knob. "It could still be broken."

"It's fine, it doesn't hurt enough to be broken." he waved off her concern, and let her lead him to his couch. He wouldn't meet her gaze. What had he seen in her face when their eyes had locked onto each other? Had it been interest? Excitement? He didn't dare hope. He had dealt with a broken heart once before, and he didn't want to deal with it again. He loved her too much to pursue something with her now. Especially if she wasn't really interested, and if she had just been surprised at his losing his balance.

"Comfy?" she asked him as he propped his feet up and rested his head on a pillow.

"Yes..." he nodded, looking up at the ceiling.

She didn't like the fact that he wasn't looking at her. Had she offended him in some way? She sat down beside him on the edge of the couch, and he was forced to look at her. He looked supremely uncomfortable, and despite the heat in the room he pulled the afghan off the top of the couch and covered himself with it. What she didn't know was that her closeness had provoked a very normal male reaction; he was beginning to get an erection.

"Are you all right?" she asked him, putting her paw on the side of his face, causing his eyes to widen. What was she doing?!

"Fine..." he said, his voice cracking for the first time since adolescence. He cleared his throat, and repeated in normal tones, "Just fine."

He was saved by his stomach. The rumble of hunger made both of them stare at his tummy, and they laughed, the tension broken. She said, "Why don't I make us some lunch?"

"Nah, you don't have to..." he told her, but she put her paw over his mouth.

"I want to. You rest that ankle." she got up, and went into his kitchen.

Brave Heart was left alone to ponder his situation. What was she up to? Surely she was just being nice, but didn't she know this was torture for him? He was no longer erect, but he didn't trust himself to throw off the blanket. Supposing it happened again, and she noticed? He couldn't risk it. He turned over on his side, and sighed.

Proud Heart came back a few minutes later with some grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup in earthenware mugs. He thanked her, and they ate in a companionable silence. Proud Heart wanted to say something...she wanted to tell him that she had changed her mind...but she knew she couldn't do that to him. She had hurt him once...why would he want to try again? She looked over at him, and smiled at the fact that he had crumbs sticking to the fur around his mouth. "Oh, silly, look at you..." she told him, and she reached over with her paw and slowly wiped the crumbs from his mouth. He didn't move a muscle. His heart pounded in his chest, and he was afraid that she could actually see his heart beating beneath the fur.

Long after the crumbs were gone, she kept her paw on his face, migrating to his cheek, and stroking the soft fur without even thinking about it. Her own heart was hammering, and she was noticing that he hadn't pulled away from her. His lips parted slightly as if he would speak, but he said nothing. He seemed to be incapable of speech. Kiss him...her mind told her. It's so perfect...kiss him now...Slowly, very slowly, Proud Heart leaned forward. He didn't lean backwards or forwards. He held very still. She tilted her head slightly to her right...and he tilted his own head slightly to his right. Their faces drew closer...closer...and at the last minute, he looked down. No! Proud Heart's mind writhed in disappointment and remorse.

"Proud Heart...what are you doing?" he asked quietly, in a voice filled with more pain than she would ever have expected.

"I..." but she couldn't think of anything to say.

He continued, his voice quiet, "I don't want to be played with, Proud. I respected your decision all those years ago, and I think it's very mean to try to kiss me if you're not serious. Are you? I...I have no way of knowin'. What am I supposed to think?"

Proud Heart didn't touch him, but she ached to hold him, to tell him she was sorry. "Brave Heart...you yourself said that was years ago. We were very young back then, and...I wasn't ready to be with anyone at the time. I never meant to hurt you..."

"But I know that..." he began, but she put her paw to his mouth.

"Please, let me finish...over the years we've shared a lot, good times and bad times. You never held it against me, at least not that I know of." here he shook his head; he didn't hold it against her. She continued, "But when I said no...I didn't necessarily mean forever. I...well, I'm attracted to you...and..." she stopped speaking, and he took her paw and pulled it gently away from his mouth.

"And what?" he asked softly.

It was now or never. "I love you..."

Brave Heart hardly dared to believe it, even now...but he knew her. He knew she'd never intentionally hurt him...and she'd never lie to him about something like this. Still, he was afraid. He was afraid to tell her. He had kept it to himself for so long...

Proud Heart bowed her head, convinced that she had just made a huge mistake. "I'm sorry...I better go..." she stood up...but he hadn't let go of her wrist. She tried to gently tug herself loose, but he had her hand firmly in his grasp.

"Proud Heart..." he said, and she turned and looked through her tears of shame and embarrassment. What she saw in his eyes brought her up short. "Please...don't go..."

She sat down again, and they didn't hesitate this time. He gently took her face between his paws, and pressed his lips against hers. He kissed her very gently, keeping his rising passion in check, and blindly wiping the tears from her cheeks with his thumbs. "I..." he managed to tell her between kisses, "I...love you...too...Never stopped..."

They sat there for a long time, finding it hard to believe they had ended up here, but not minding in the slightest. He leaned forward and she leaned back, and he was half on top of her, kissing her with rising intensity, his tongue pressing against her lips as it sought entry, which she granted. The kiss deepened, and he could have stayed there forever...except he was becoming hard again. He abruptly pulled back, and repositioned his blanket, mumbling an apology.

What had just happened? Proud Heart frowned in confusion, and sat up also. "What's the matter?"

"Nothing..." he mumbled.

"Why did you stop?" she asked, "And why the blanket?"

Brave Heart was in agony. Not now! This shouldn't happen NOW! He buried his face in his paws, so humiliated that he wanted the couch cushions to swallow him. He edged away from Proud Heart, who was both hurt and confused.

"Brave Heart...what's wrong?" she asked, touching his shoulder, but he pulled away.

"Nothing..." he repeated, his voice both thick and breaking at the same time.

"Brave Heart..." she said again, but she didn't know what to say. Then she heard a sniffle. She blinked in confusion. "Are you crying?"

"No..."

"Yes you are."

"No'm not..."

She reached over, but she didn't try to remove his hands from his face. Instead she patted him gently on the back, and said, "Whatever it is, it can't be so bad...tell me..."

"Oh, I can't!" he moaned, beyond humiliated now. He was mortified. She moved over so that she was next to him again, and hugged him from behind, resting her cheek on his back. That only made his problem worse, but he didn't stop her. He simply sat there, willing his penis to soften and return to its hiding place so that he could think more clearly, and perhaps tell her what his problem was...but with her so close that wasn't possible.

"Brave Heart...you know you can tell me anything. If you're worried about me telling someone else, you can stop worrying right now. I won't tell a soul. What's the matter?" she asked.

He was silent for a while, then he said hesitantly, "It's my..."

"Your what?"

"My..." he choked back a sob, and said, "It's my privates...my...my...it's hard...There, I said it!"

Her eyes widened, and she would have laughed except he was really crying now, shaking with silent sobs and burying his face into the pillow. He really was innocent! Perhaps he knew what it was all about, but he seemed to think it was a bad thing, a dirty thing. "Brave Heart...please, don't cry. It's natural. It's normal. There's nothing wrong with you..."

"No, maybe not if I were a man...or a normal lion...but I'm somewhere in between, and I'm neither!" he told her, not looking up.

"You're Brave Heart...the one I love. You have nothing to be ashamed of." she told him, stroking the back of his head.

"I don't?" he asked in a small voice.

"No. Nothing at all."

"But I'm a Care Bear Cousin..." he said, looking back at her for the first time.

Proud Heart nodded. "So am I. Do you think I don't have desires too?"

He blinked. "Do you?"

She nodded, smiling. She reached out and dried his tears with her paw. He smiled back, a bit uncertainly, but it was a smile just the same. He kept the blanket where it was, and from what she could tell he was no longer hard. He had frightened himself into flaccidity. She pulled him close and simply held him, and they sat there for a good long time. But Brave Heart had some questions.

"So it's not wrong for us to...you know." he blushed.

"Think about sex? Have sex?" she asked matter-of-factly, and his blush deepened. He nodded, not looking up. She shrugged her shoulders, and said, "Well, I don't think it is. Not if the ones involved really love each other."

"Well...wouldn't they have to be...you know...married first?" he asked.

"It's a matter of opinion...but my opinion is that we're not human...so we don't have to adhere to all human customs." she smiled. She was rationalizing, she knew, but that was her view on sex. "Also there shouldn't be any forcing. If one isn't ready for something, the other should respect the wishes of their partner."

Brave Heart's mind was swimming. He was a bit confused, a bit invigorated, and more than a bit nervous. "But what about..."

"Hmm?"

He took a deep breath. "What about...on ourselves...you know..."

"Also normal."

"Oh."

Brave Heart turned his head, and gently nuzzled her neck a bit, very much relieved. Why hadn't he talked to her about his doubts and fears before? Well, two reasons. One, that would be admitting he was afraid of something. And two, that would mean divulging his little secret. And he had been wrong before. No one would ever know. Well, now someone did know. And he was glad she knew. She turned her head towards him, and captured his mouth with hers once more. She was very mindful of his reactions; if he seemed hesitant, she would stop...but he wasn't hesitating now. He kissed her back in earnest, putting his arms around her and crushing her to his chest. He kissed her mouth, her eyes, her cheeks, her neck...he sucked gently on her neck, the fur not bothering him in the slightest. She smelled clean, like the rose scented bubble bath she had soaked in earlier, and she tasted even better; he never wanted to stop kissing her. She returned his kisses with ardor, her paws roaming all over his back, feeling beneath his mane the muscular shoulders.

And oh! Now that he was no longer afraid, he was that much more forward. He didn't touch her anywhere inappropriate, but his paws did some roaming of their own. He moaned low in his throat, and when she glanced down she saw why. His penis strained against the blanket, and the friction from the fabric rubbing against the tender head must be sweet torture to him. She began to reach for it, but she remembered his previous fears and stopped. He never even noticed; he was too busy kissing her neck, the side of her head, her face. He thrust his tongue into her mouth, and she made little noises of pleasure as they kissed most passionately. He was moving his hips almost imperceptively, and she finally pulled back and looked down pointedly.

"You...said it wasn't wrong." he sounded confused, getting ready to put his paws over the tent-like bump in the blanket.

She smiled, and shook her head. He had misunderstood. "No, it's okay...can I see it?"

He blinked, a bit surprised, and he almost said no. He didn't want her to see it...he wanted to put it inside her. He felt the familiar twinges of shame, but he pushed them away. He nodded his head slowly, and let her remove the blanket. He couldn't watch her as she looked at him. Just looked. While his penis was erect and out of its sheath, it closely resembled a man's penis, only not quite as big. It was in proportion with the rest of him. It began to soften a little; this close scrutiny and his nervousness quelled his desire a little.

Then she said, "Can I touch it?"

Again he nodded slowly, and it was amazing how quickly it hardened again before she had even gone near it. She reached down tentatively, and put her paw on him. He closed his eyes. Even though she wasn't doing anything yet, this was heaven! Her paw was so warm...Proud Heart had no specific purpose in mind; she only wanted to know his body, and to see what he liked. She would stop if he told her to stop.

But he didn't tell her. He knew what he wanted her to do...but he was afraid to ask it of her. He wasn't afraid of how she would take it, but he simply couldn't find the words. When she curiosly touched the mushroom-shaped cap at the top of his penis, he arched his back and gasped quietly. "Ah...Proud Heart..."

"Do you like this?" she asked, gently caressing his member, and moving down to his inner thighs to touch his scrotum. He could only nod, and it didn't occur to him to return the favor. He was too floored by what was happening to him. He remembered his dream, how she had climbed into his lap and lowered herself on him, burying him to the hilt within herself. Part of him was afraid she'd do that...and part of him wanted her to do that. But she didn't. She resumed kissing him, rubbing her paw gently up and down his penis, a small drop of precum lubricating the movements so that there wasn't too much friction. He wasn't the quiet type, she discovered. He continually moaned and groaned into her mouth, his hips beginning to move of their own accord, thrusting gently and sensually into her closed paw. He was becoming too dry, and he winced as the rubbing became slightly painful, but then she did something that surprised him. She licked her paw to moisten it, tasting a slightly bitter tang on her paw from his precum, and she resumed rubbing him again with her slick paw. Oh, that was better than ever! He continued to moan, kissing her and stroking the back of her head while her paw was busy in his lap. Suddenly he stopped, and put his paw on hers.

"What's the matter?" she asked.

Gasping, he managed to answer her. "I'm about to get 'the feeling'. It...makes a mess..." he blushed.

Proud Heart wanted him to experience that pleasure...but he was right. It would make a mess on his couch. She glanced around, and saw some napkins left over from their lunch. She grabbed a clean one and unfolded it, positioning it over his member to catch his semen. She looked up at him for permission to continue, and he nodded. For Heaven's sake, yes, he wanted her to continue! She smiled lovingly, and obliged him, exhaulting in the fact that she, Proud Heart Cat, was making the male she loved feel so good. She stroked him, faster than before, one paw driving him towards the brink once more, and one paw holding a napkin over the tip. He began to pant heavily, arching his back, not quite coming yet. The pause in their action had driven it away somewhat, but not by much. He cupped her face in his left paw and kissed her again, moaning lustfully into her mouth, and fighting the urge to buck his hips. This felt so good! Oh, he was so close..."Oh...I love you so much..." he moaned.

"I love you too..." she told him between kisses, her paw moving a little faster. "I want you to get 'the feeling'. Let me give it to you..."

Brave Heart was so far gone he could barely speak. He felt his balls tighten, and he knew from the warmth and tingling in his loins that it was going to happen very soon. He closed his eyes, panting, grunting as the beginnings of his climax were in sight. "Oh...oh, it's happening! Oh..ahhh...unh!" His hips did buck once, but he couldn't help it. His eyes would have rolled over white if they had been open, and he bit back a roar as spurt after spurt burst forth from his member. He had never had such a long one when he had touched himself in the shower! It was torture to hold still; his thighs trembled and his toes curled, but hold still he did. "Ohhh...Oh...yes..." he gasped, panting as he came down from his orgasmic high, completely drained. He slowly returned to reality, and saw that Proud Heart had placed the dirty napkin in the waste basket near the couch. Even if he hadn't had a sprained ankle, he was much to exhausted to get up now. He smiled, chuckling softly as she nestled in close and wrapped the blanket around both of them. He wondered how she could be so cool and collected, but what he didn't know was that the sight of him in such agonizing pleasure had given her a climax of her own. She rested her head against his chest, idly playing with the soft white fur.

"Brave Heart?"

"Hmm?"

There was a smile in her voice as she kissed his jaw and said, "I think this is the start of something great."

Author's Note: Thanks to the three of you who reviewed my story. This one was dedicated to you.