Full Body Inflation

It was the day before Thanksgiving, and Mother Nature had served up a typical late November storm, a storm that made up for what it lacked in force with sheer persistence. It'd kept up a steady rhythm on the roof of the tent all of yesterday and looked to be continuing through today. I'd finished today's newspaper hours ago, down to the crossword puzzle. The only stations we could get on the old radio were fading in and out of static, making listening an exercise in frustration, something neither of us needed more of.

"Star, are you sure you want to go through with this?"

"Do I LOOK unsure, Dick?" Starfire said with a giggle. The red-orange alien girl knelt before him on his apartment floor, naked except for a loin cloth thong. Her arms were shackled behind her head to a chain that ran up to a bolt in the ceiling. A warm smile was spread across her face as her green, pupil-less eyes watched Dick intently, whose face was almost as red as Starfire's.

"I mean, I'm all for taking our relationship to he next level, but don't you think-"

It was eerily dark that night, despite the cold glow of the full moon. The young couple seemed oblivious, walking hand in hand through the woods. Wind howled suddenly, rustling dead leaves that still clung desperately to the gnarled trees. The girl jumped. "Ernst, something touched my cheek!"

The young man smiled and wrapped his arms around his companion, hugging her close. She held just the right amount of air, and he felt it rush to other parts of her as he squeezed. "It was just a leaf. Nobody's out here but us."