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A New Game To Play - Chapter 1

by DoggyStyle57

https://inkbunny.net/doggystyle57

August 2016

Story commission for bugs46 on InkBunny

https://inkbunny.net/bugs46

Nicole Henderson sat in the middle of the back seat of her parent's compact car, sandwiched somewhat uncomfortably between her two little brothers, and keeping herself entertained by playing a game on her iPhone. It was the last weekend of spring break, and the lynx family were going to spend the next few days with the family of her mom's brother, Alexander Cartwright. All of the kids in her family were excited that they would get to spend time with uncle Alex, auntie Diana, and their cousins Donovan and Sally again, who they had not seen since Christmas. Nicole was particularly happy that she would get to be with Donny, as she called her favorite cousin. They were both twelve years old, and he was only two months older than she was.

As the car left the county road and tuned onto the side streets of the town that the Cartwright family lived in, she paused her game and sent a Facebook message to Donny, letting him know they were almost there. He must have been eagerly waiting for a message from her to pop up on his iPhone or on his laptop computer, and not wrapped up in playing a game, because he immediately replied that he had a great new multiplayer on-line computer game, and that he couldn't wait to see her in person again and play it with her. She swiftly replied that she felt the same way, and that of course she would love to play his new game with him.

Donny and Nicole shared a love of gaming that both amused and perplexed both of their families. None of the others in either family had much interest in computer games or console games, so when the two cousins got into happily chattering about the specifics of this game or that, it was almost like they were speaking a foreign language. This last Christmas, as a reward for continuing to get excellent grades in school despite how often they played their console games, Nicole and Donny's respective parents had each gifted their oldest children with their own iPhones, with unlimited talk and data contracts, (the best model from two years earlier, hand-me-downs from their parents, who had just upgraded their own phones to the newest model), as well as each of the twelve year old gamers getting brand new laptop 'gaming rig' computers with Internet access. So now, in addition to being Facebook friends and playing multiplayer console games with each other over the Internet, Nicole and Donny often played computer games on-line together, either on the same team in the larger multiplayer games, or head to head against each other. Both kids were rather shy and introverted when dealing with others in person, and neither had started dating yet at all, nor did either of them really have many friends at school. They both admitted that they were pretty much hardcore gamer geeks, much more comfortable playing computer or console games or interacting with people over the Internet than doing things with friends in person.

Nicole, particularly, preferred interacting with people on-line, where no one had to know she was almost blind without her glasses, or would tease her about her poor eyesight, like the kids in her seventh grade class did at school. In the gaming world, she could be a deadly sniper or a bold archer or someone else with perfect vision, great agility, and a gorgeous face and figure, and not be seen as a slightly clumsy, nearly flat-chested young lynx girl with 'nerd gasses' that had thick black plastic frames and thick lenses. The more 'stylish' wire-rimmed or rimless glasses that most girls her age preferred just looked weird or wouldn't work at all with her thick lenses, and usually the lenses on the 'feminine' ones were much too small, in her opinion. Her glasses may not be cute or stylish, but the big lenses allowed her to see everything clearly, and especially to see her large external monitor, her laptop's built-in computer screen, and her keyboard, all at the same time while gaming, without needing to move her head a lot to keep things in focus.

Her mother insisted that Nicole was really quite cute for a twelve year old, especially if she would just try to do more with her long, curly black hair, and not wear it in a pony tail all the time. Nicole agreed that her hair _did_look nicer against her tan fur when she wore it loose, but she had countered that it also got in her face and made it harder to play her games when she didn't keep it in a pony tail. Her mom had also told her that she should try to dress more like a girl, instead of always wearing jeans and t-shirts. Nicole had responded by putting skirts on her female gaming characters, but she had continued to wear what she found comfortable at school and at home. After all, her gaming friends never saw how she was _really_dressed, and the kids at school only seemed to see her glasses and dismiss her immediately as a geek or a nerd. Never once had any of them complemented her appearance on the few occasions when she wore a nice skirt and blouse to school for 'picture days'. This last year had been particularly hard on Nicole's self esteem, as the new school year started and many of the suddenly more 'popular' girls in her seventh grade class had begun to develop big boobs, while she was still nearly as flat chested as a fifth grader.

"Are we there yet?" Patrick Henderson asked, for at least the third time in the last few minutes. Since they had left the county highway and started seeing houses, every time the car had turned onto a different street, he had eagerly asked if the trip was over yet. The six year old lynx boy was squirming uncomfortably in his seat and clearly needed to use the bathroom. It _had_been a rather long and boring ride, particularly for Patrick and his little brother, Victor. Four hours of driving down a quiet, two-lane county road, winding through rolling hills and past occasional grassy plateaus, with very little to see along the way other than farmer's fields, vacation cottages, and undeveloped woodlands. His little brother had fallen asleep over an hour ago, resting his head on their big sister's lap, and was now purring and snoring softly.

"No dear, but we're almost there now," his mother replied from the front seat, as she watched for their next turn. "We just drove past the school that your cousins Donovan and Sally go to. The street they live on is the second right after we pass the small park that's on the far side of the school, to our right now. See! There's the playground you kids like to play at when we visit your cousins. And there's the ice cream parlor, at the corner where their street meets this one. Just a few more minutes."

"Hang in there, kiddo," his father said, as he turned onto the side street. "Just four more blocks to go. You can hold it, buddy."

Nicole closed the web browser and game apps on her phone and grinned at Patrick, who was crossing his legs and peering out the window at the neat rows of homes on the shady, tree-lined street. Patrick had long ago finished off the bottle of lightly-carbonated lemonade his mother had given him at the start of the trip, as well as most of his sleeping brother's lemonade bottle, and now he seemed to be regretting it severely. "I _told_you not to drink Victor's lemonade too," Nicole whispered. "You_know_there aren't any potty stops on the highway between our town and this one. It's gonna be your own fault if you wet your pants like a baby, like you did on the last trip over here, for Christmas."

"I'm notta baby!" he insisted loudly. "But... I do gotta pee, really bad!" he added, in a quieter and very embarrassed tone. He really didn't like it when his big sister reminded him of that incident.

Gravel crunched under the tires as their father turned the car into his sister in law's driveway. His wife's brother, Alexander Cartwright, was watering the front lawn with a garden hose, and his sister in law, Diana, stood in the open doorway of their home, with Donovan's little sister, Sally, standing beside her. There was no sign of Donovan. "Okay everyone! All out!" he said, as he stopped the car and pressed the button which unlocked all the car doors.

"Outta my way!" Patrick shouted, as he popped open his seat belt, threw open the car door, and rushed into the house so fast that he almost knocked over his aunt and younger cousin.

His aunt just laughed and went to greet the rest of the family, as they got out of the car at a more sedate pace. "I guess he has an urgent need? At least he made it into the house this time. Donovan told us you were almost here," she said. "Nick, Louise, it's always so good to see you. And my! Nicole certainly has grown in the last several months! You're looking very pretty, my dear!"

"Thank you, auntie Diana," Nicole said politely. "Yeah, I grew almost two inches taller since we saw you at Christmas."

"And she grew almost an inch elsewhere, too," her father said with a wink, "Our little girl will soon be a woman."

"Daddy! Don't say things like that!" Nicole exclaimed, absolutely mortified that her father would be so open about mentioning that she needed a training bra now. "Where's Donny, auntie?" she asked, desperately trying to change the subject.

"He's waiting for you in his bedroom, dear," her aunt replied, frowning at her brother in law. "He's setting up a second headset and controller for a new game that he wants to play with you, on his computer. You know the way."

Nicole nodded and ran into the house, trying to hide how much she was blushing.

Louise Henderson carried her sleeping youngest son from the car and joined her husband. "Alex, how many times must I remind you to be more sensitive around Nicole when it comes to mentioning 'female issues' in public? It's very difficult for a young girl to go through adolescence, and you don't need to make it worse for her by teasing her about how her body is changing."

"In all fairness, I _wasn't_teasing her, my dear. Just stating a fact," Nicole's father said. "But I'll try. At least Nicole's still too young to worry about it being 'that time of the month'. Or for us to worry about her becoming boy crazy."

"It won't be long now before both of those issues will be part of her life too, dear. So be kind to her, and enjoy her being a little girl while you can," her mother said. "Before you know it, she'll be a woman and out on her own, with a mate and kittens, and_we'll_be grandparents."

"Not before she finishes college, I dare hope," her father said. "She's in the seventh grade and doesn't even have a boyfriend yet, and you're already thinking about grandchildren! I certainly hope our girl is level headed enough to wait for the right time before seeking a mate and starting a family. I promise that I won't bug her about how her body is changing. But _you_need to make sure you don't pester her about when she will give you grandchildren to spoil. She doesn't need _that_kind of pressure on her either. Let's get our own three kittens out the door and on their own before seeking more diapers to change, please! I'm in no hurry to be known as 'grandpa Alex', let me tell you. Are you that eager to be a grandmother?"

"No. But it seems like only yesterday that Nicole was in preschool, and now I'm helping her to buy training bras," her mother said. "Did you know that one girl in her class, Heather Johnson, came back from summer vacation and had 34DD breasts? Heather had been as flat chested as Nicole when school let out last fall! Poor girl must have terrible backaches, from getting so top-heavy, so fast. At least our baby should be spared that extremity. None of the women in our family have ever had much more than a B or C cup, and we tend to develop more gradually. Still, I expect our girl will be as tall as me and wearing bras my size well before she gets into high school."

===

Donovan Cartwright was a nice-looking young lynx, with black hair that came down to his neck, and tan fur, like all of his family, including his cousins. He was above average in height, and was at a good healthy weight for his age and height. Though he spent most of his free time sitting motionless and gaming, he had a small set of exercise weights, and he tried to get in enough exercise every day to not look like a total couch potato.

Donovan also had a _huge_crush on his cousin, Nicole. Over the past several years they had really bonded as gaming buddies and Facebook friends, even though they only saw each other in person three or four times a year. And that friendship had really deepened a lot since last Christmas, now that they both had their own gaming computers and could do Skype video chats with each other, or talk freely with each other using their headsets while gaming on-line, without the 'child safe' text chat filters imposed by most of their console games. Nicole was the only girl he really felt comfortable around, because they shared so many interests.

As adolescence began to affect his hormones, he had been having more... personal thoughts about his pretty, female cousin. She was nothing like the girls he knew at school, who either had no interest yet in boys, or who were so full of themselves and so proud of how big their boobies had gotten over the last summer that they were insufferable. He certainly wasn't _immune_to the charms of the girls in his class, but he loved his cousin's personality and her cute, shy smile far more than he was tempted by his female classmates' rapidly blooming figures. When he masturbated, it was almost always Nicole's face he thought of, as he imagined what she might look like without her clothes on.

Donovan was still a virgin himself, as he was certain Nicole was. He had yet to even kiss a girl in an adult way, and he had never seen a live girl naked yet. But he was enough of a computer geek that it had been trivial for him to unlock and turn off the 'parental censorware' that his mom and dad had put on his gaming rig laptop, and in the last few months he _had_seen and read some pretty racy adult stuff on the Internet, downloaded from free porn sites that didn't require either a credit card or an account with lots of personal information to access them. He was very careful not to get caught or to leave any traces his parents might find, if they checked his computer. He would get up late at night, when everyone else was asleep, copy the URL's from a text file which had a name which made it look like one of his system files, look at those websites, and then carefully erase the browser history and any downloaded files. So he knew what naked adult ladies looked like, and what it looked like when people had sex with each other in various ways, and to some extent he knew how to do those sexy things. And he often fantasized about doing those things with Nicole.

Of course, he hadn't ever _dared_to tell Nicole that he had those sorts of feelings for her! First of all, she _was_his cousin. So even if she was willing, they could never be a real boyfriend and girlfriend couple. But more importantly, she was his best friend, and the very last thing he wanted was to have her hate him and not want to play games with him anymore, because she thought he was some sort of a sex-crazed pervert!

When she knocked on his door and came in, he froze, consumed with guilt over the sexy things he had just been thinking about doing to his beloved cousin, and fearing she would see the lust in his eyes. Yet he still couldn't keep his eyes off her, or refrain from thinking about how he felt about her. He stammered, "H-hello Nicole,", and just stood there, admiring her for a moment. She was just so darned cute! Most people would dismiss her as totally average. Just a normal twelve year old lynx girl with geeky glasses. But he even thought her glasses looked cute on her.

"Hi Donny! So, you have a new game, huh?" Nicole asked, oblivious to his intentions, or to the open admiration in his gaze. She was too busy admiring _his_body to recognize that he was doing the same to her. She looked her cousin up and down, and was pleased with what she saw. In her opinion, he was definitely the most attractive boy in the world. She impulsively walked forward and gave him a hug, and noticed that he also seemed taller and more muscular than she remembered from last Christmas. "Mummmmm. It's _so_good to see you again."

Donny froze again for an instant, started to return the hug, and then broke it off suddenly, as he realized he was starting to get a stiffy! "Ummm, yeah! Great to see you, too! Hey, I woulda met you at the door with the rest of my family, but I wanted to have everything loaded and hooked up for my new game. It's all ready now, though. Let's play!"

Nicole was confused for a moment by his sudden escape from her hug, but she soon lost that thought as they immersed themselves in the latest release of a new massively multiplayer on-line fantasy role playing game with 3D graphics and the potential for photo-realistic details.

They created new characters first. The basic out-of-the-box version of the game didn't have a lynx as a character species, but there were several other feline and feline-hybrid species to choose from. Donny quickly made his character into a muscular ranger, using a default Ranger character, choosing 'lion' for the species choice, and hardly adjusting it at all, and giving himself leather armor and a two handed sword. Nicole made her character into a pretty feline/elf archer with snow white fur and golden-blonde hair. Unlike her cousin, she was _very_particular about how her character looked. Donny grinned and waited patiently as his cousin meticulously tweaked and adjusted her character's figure, facial features and hair color. He noted that, as usual, she gave her character a _very_adult-shaped female figure, with a trim waist, curvy hips, and moderately big boobs, yet not exaggeratedly large ones. Her character would easily have rivaled many of the adult porn stars with normal sized adult breasts which he had seen on the Internet. She was even particular about her character's eye shape and color, choosing ice blue eyes and detailing her eye shape, eyelashes and eyebrows, even though those details would only be seen if someone ignored game play and zoomed in their view for a close-up of her face. Donny wondered what she would say, or if she would even believe him, if he told her that he liked her body just the way she really is, and that if he had to choose between her sexy game character and the real, flat-chested Nicole, he would choose his cousin over her gaming character in a heartbeat.

Once she had the body 'perfect', she had to get the clothes just right as well. She even bothered to equip her character with undergarments that didn't normally show once she was ready to play. Donny chuckled to himself at that, because when they were playing similar games from their respective homes and she couldn't see what he was looking at, he often _did_zoom in on her face, and would occasionally also adjust his viewpoint to odd angles that allowed him to peek up under her skirt and see if she had panties on or not. She always did. But as she put on and took off several possible starter outfits of clothing and light armor, she removed all of her character's undergarments on some occasions, and he fervently wished she would be so casual about undressing around him for real. Of course, the standard textures for the character's 'private places' had no detail at all, so there was really nothing to see but smooth fur on her chest and groin when her character was naked. Boys and girls were both as smooth and featureless as a child's doll 'down there' when you took everything off. But it was still thrilling to him to 'see her naked', even indirectly, through the game's animated characters.

The manual said that additional 'mod packs' could be purchased from the maker of the game, or downloaded for free from player-run game developer websites, to add more species choices and accessories to the basic game. Donny had also heard rumors on the fan-based forum support sites for the game which claimed there were already fan-created, adult-oriented 'mod packs' for this particular game, which would allow you to replace the default character texture files with photorealistic and very detailed x-rated ones that showed all the body's intimate-area details, and which would also add special animations and 'character accessories', so your character could 'get naked' and appear to have sex with another character on the screen, with everyone else in that part of the multi-player game able to see it. He wondered what Nicole would think if he got that mod pack and installed it for both of them, since she liked making her game character look so sexy. Would she ever let her characters have some sexy fun with his, if they could find a secluded spot in the game world where no one could see them?

The 3D graphics were amazing, and the players on each team could communicate privately within their team with a voice-chat system and voice-activated headsets, leaving their hands free for the controllers. But what was best today was that Nicole and Donny wouldn't need the chat system for each other, since they were sitting together in the same room. They could indicate what was needed between them with just a hand gesture or a few words, signals they had already agreed on when playing similar games together, and totally surprise even the other members of their own team with how seamlessly they acted together. In the two-player or team modes, like they were paying now, they each had their own game controllers, and half of the screen dedicated to their personal point of view.

Once they were ready, they jumped through the 'portal' from the setup area and into the game itself. Since this version of the game had only come out a month earlier, the other players on this particular game server near the game's default starting point were all still fairly low level themselves. But judging from their voices, all of the others who were available for them to play with right now were probably college-aged, or even older adults. After seeing what options were available for starter quests and adding to their equipped items a bit to suit the first quest that they wanted to attempt, Donny and Nicole joined a team of three other third and fourth level players for an entry-level adventure to slay a monster that was terrorizing the village. As they began the quest, they frequently muted their mics during the less intense scenes between combats, and chatted with each other about other current video games and the like, while they played.

The other three players in their current team had already attempted this quest before, and they carefully warned Nicole and Donny that in the final fight of this quest, there would be _two_monsters, and not just one. The beast had a mate, which you didn't find out about until you engaged the first one in battle, and if the beast and its mate ever teamed up, the average starting character had no chance to defeat the pair of them. When they got to the point in the quest where that final battle was to happen, the other three players said they were going to go around a hillside and attempt to attack the monster's lair from the rear, while Donny and Nicole's task was to approach from the obvious frontal attack route, and attack and fall back just enough to draw the monsters out of their lair and make them vulnerable to the intended two-sided team attack, while keeping them apart from each other. The cousins laughed with each other at being assigned to a 'cannon fodder' role by the older players, and promised each other to be careful and to show the others that even a level one character could be useful and deadly, if run by an experienced gamer. They slowly advanced on the monster's lair, taking advantage of every available bit of cover, and taking their time to get Nicole's archer into a good position to use her longbow to the best possible advantage before actually triggering the start of the combat. When she was ready, Donny's character crept forward and got close enough to the lair to make the monster come out. His mind began to drift off and he stared at Nicole during the game's rather long cut scene that triggered once the monster emerged from its lair, prior to that big fight. He thought about how gorgeous she was, and how happy he was that she was right there in the same room with him. He began again to fantasize about what might she might look like underneath her clothing. Her character on the screen was great looking too - with an adult's figure and a _very_short skirt that showed off her long, shapely legs. He sat there and admired her character's grace and beauty as she started firing arrows at the lone attacking monster, to lure him in her direction.

"DONNY! I said, get that monster on the left! It's mate just showed up!" Nicole shouted.

Donny's attention jerked back to the game, but he was too late. The first monster had already rushed past him, attacking the source of the arrows that were bouncing almost harmlessly off his thick armored hide. And then, while Donny's ranger stood there like a love struck fool, the second monster, which Donny should have started fighting as soon as it appeared, ambled past him and teamed up with the one Nicole was already fighting. As soon as they touched each other, the monster and its mate used their special combined-effect attack and swiftly took Nicole's character out of the fight, before turning their attention on Donny and taking him out just as easily. The rest of their squad was only just barely coming into range from the rear, and couldn't engage until it was much too late.

"What were you doing?" Nicole asked as she took off her headset, and helplessly watched their remaining team members getting devoured. "You _knew_that this monster had a mate! We all agreed the only way to beat them was to keep them from working together, and to attack from both the front and the rear. Now we've lost, and that squad isn't likely to want us to play with them again."

"I'm_so_sorry!" Donny apologized, shutting down the game and taking off his own headset as their last member of their team fell before the pair of monsters. "What can I do to make it up to you?"

"Well... how about giving me a neck massage? I'm really tense after that fight," she suggested with a shy grin. "Actually, my shoulders have been aching a lot lately anyway, no matter what I'm doing. Mom says it's just 'growing pains', from the growth spurt I'm going through." She was much too embarrassed to admit that her mother had _also_said it likely had something to do with the start of her pubescent breast development.

"R-really? Uhhh, yeah, sure!" Donny replied. "You _do_seem taller than I remembered. You, ummm... You look nice. Slender and graceful, like that archer character of yours."

"I wish! I'll never be half as pretty as she is! But it's really nice of you to say so," Nicole said, quite pleased at the complement. She sat on the edge of his bed, turned her back to him, and pulled her hair aside. "Now please, I really _would_appreciate a good neck rub. Do you know what to do?"

"Sort of. Dad does them for mom sometimes, when she's had a bad day and needs to relax. How does this feel?" he asked, as he nervously began to rub and knead at her neck and shoulders. He loved the way her soft fur felt above the neckline of her shirt, and he slowly worked his way down her spine with his hands remaining on the outside of her t-shirt, touching the middle of her back through the thin fabric, the way he had seen his father do to his mom, and trying to be gentle.

Nicole began to purr happily. "Murrrrr! Oh yeah, just like that! But you _can_rub harder, Donny. I'm not made of glass, an' I won't break!" Nicole was in pure bliss, getting a massage from such a hunk made her feel hot in her 'special area'. She closed her eyes and began to purr almost continuously. She also began to softly sigh and moan, and to feel wet and squishy between her legs. She had never felt so wet like that before in her special place, but it felt really, really good.

Nicole's sighs and moans took hold of Donny, making him less nervous and a little more bold about touching her. As he moved a little further down her back, he realized he could see some kind of outline under the fabric of her T-shirt, which he hadn't noticed before. Curious, Donny reached lower, and felt for what was under her shirt.

The unexpected touch of his hand on her bra strap startled Nicole. She was still very embarrassed and self-conscious over her father's offhand comment about her needing a training bra, which she had only started wearing a few weeks earlier. She jumped off the bed, clutching her chest, just as Donny realized Nicole was now wearing some kind of bra.

"I'm sorry! Oh gosh, I'm so sorry!" Donny exclaimed. "I shouldn't have touched you there, Right? I didn't know!"

Nicole just shrugged it off and said, "It... was just an accident. I didn't expect... Thanks Donny. I mean, for the massage. That felt really nice. The massage! That massage felt nice, yeah..." She headed for the door with a shy smile, and said, "Ummmm, isn't it about dinner time? I'm starved! How about you?"

===

Donny and Nicole both tried to play it cool for the rest of the evening, as if nothing unusual had happened between them. They had dinner with the rest of the family, and then played racing games on one of Donny's console games in the living room until fairly late into the night. The adults played a board game with the younger kids until it was their usual bedtime, and then, after getting the three younger kids settled down in Sally's room for a 'sleepover', the adults began to play bridge in the kitchen.

But although the two older kids seemed fine, their minds were abuzz. Donny just couldn't stop thinking about Nicole in sexual ways. And Nicole couldn't stop thinking about Donny's gentle touch and what his body must look like, now that he was getting taller and more muscular. Donny and Nicole both wished they could express their feelings to each other, but both of them were afraid they would gross out the other.

As the hour grew late, the adults ended their card game. Nicole's parents took their things to Diana Cartwright's sewing room, where Alexander Cartwright would be setting up an air bed for the visiting adult couple.

Donny's mom brought her niece's small suitcase into the living room, where Donny and Nicole were just finishing playing their game, along with a couple of blankets, a sheet, and a pillow. "Are you certain you'll be comfortable enough sleeping on our couch, Nicole? I'm afraid it isn't a hide-a-bed type. I could get a camping cot out of the garage for you, if you like."

"The couch is fine, auntie Diana," Nicole insisted, as she turned off the game and she and Donny got up off the couch. "I'm quite used to falling asleep on our couch after a long night of gaming with Donny or my other gamer friends, on the nights when I don't have school the next day. I'll be quite comfy."

"Well, all right," her aunt said, as she used the bedding to make up the couch into a makeshift bed for Nicole. "Donovan, it's time to go to bed and give your cousin a little privacy, so she can change into her PJ's. Say good night, dear."

"Of course. See you in the morning, Nicole," Donny said, giving her a brotherly hug, but not daring to kiss her in front of his mom, no matter how much he wanted to. Donny and Nicole would each have been quite surprised to find out that they shared the same wish that night - that they could curl up together tonight in Donny's bed!

Returning to his room, Donny drifted off to sleep, wishing he could get some alone time with Nicole. Just the two of them, with no parents, no siblings, and no worries. Little did he know, he was about to get his wish.

===

Early the next morning, the three youngest kids were the first in the household to awaken. Sally, Patrick and Victor hadn't slept very much all night during their sleepover in Sally's room, but they were all too excited about being together to sleep for very long. And now the three lynx kittens quietly began to sneak downstairs, bored and looking for something fun to do.

"We could watch cartoons, if we keep the volume low," Sally whispered.

"But our big sister's asleep in the room with the TV," Victor whispered back. "She'll be cranky if we wake her up."

"I bet we can have some fun with her," Patrick said quietly to his cousin Sally. "Didja know she still sleeps with a teddy?"

"She does? Really?" Sally asked. "I mean, I have a teddy I sleep with, but she's a big kid."

"Yeah, she's had it forever. Look! She's hugging it to her face! See?" Patrick said triumphantly. He was still mad at his sister for her comments the other day about him peeing his pants, and he wanted to get even with her. He whispered to the other two kids to watch from the far side of the coffee table, by the TV, and he tip-toed closer to his big sister, until he could easily reach her stuffed toy.

Grinning back at his little brother and his cousin, Patrick reached out and tried to take his sleeping sister's teddy bear from her. But as soon as he tugged on its arm, she clutched it tightly and started to wake up.

Afraid now for what his sister would do if she caught him, Patrick tried to run away, and stumbled backward into the coffee table. He lost his balance and sat on the table just as his sister opened her eyes and stared at him. They all heard a loud crunching sound as his butt landed on her glasses, breaking the frames.

"My glasses! Why you little... I'll get you for that!" Nicole shouted loudly, flailing to disentangle her legs from the blankets on the couch.

Patrick snatched the teddy bear from his sister's grasp and ran from the room, followed by his brother and younger cousin. "I got yer teddy! Can't catch me! Blind as a bat, you can't even see!" he taunted her.

Nicole was furious. It was bad enough that he was stealing her teddy bear and making fun of her, but that was her only pair of glasses! "I'll get you for that! Stop you little monster! Give that back!" she shouted, chasing the three fleeing kids up the stairs.

The three younger kids were giggling and laughing, certain that they could run upstairs and get to safety in Sally's bedroom, and lock the door against Nicole's rage. But they had made too much noise, and roused the rest of the house.

Donny stepped into the upstairs hallway in front of them, and blocked their way. "What the heck is going on here?" he asked sleepily, not allowing them to pass and just beginning to realize that Nicole was running up the stairs in her PJ's and that she looked angrier than he had ever seen her in his life.

"Nicky sleeps with a teddy!" Patrick said, trying to get Donovan on their side. "Lookit how funny she looks, tryin' to see us without her glasses. Blind as a bat!"

"Hey! Don't you tease her like that!" Donny said angrily.

"That brat BROKE my glasses!" Nicole wailed, crying and screaming in rage at the same time. She was horrified and terribly embarrassed that the younger kids were showing Donny her teddy. That was one thing she had never admitted to Donny - that she still slept with a teddy bear. She had always cuddled that bear at night, like a security blanket, for as long as she could remember. She knew that most girls her age, if they still had a teddy at all, would just keep it on their dresser or on a shelf, and not sleep with it. She wanted so badly for Donny to like her, and now he was going to think she was weird because of that silly bear. She turned and fled back down the stairs, and threw herself on the couch, crying and sobbing.

Donny, on the other hand, was more interested in the fact that he was seeing Nicole in her PJ's for the first time. On the other occasions when she had slept at his home or his family had spent the night at hers, she had always awakened and dressed before he did. She was wearing a pink, silky, stretch fabric pair of PJ's that were a little too small for her, with loose pants that kind of clung to the curve of her butt, and a top that was a bit too short in the waist and too tight in the chest for her, exposing a bit of her tummy fur. On her, it looked pretty sexy. She ran away before he could be sure if he had seen small bumps from her nipples through the fabric of her pajama shirt, or not.

When she vanished back downstairs in tears, Donny turned on his sister and cousins and snatched the bear away from them. "What did you do to her glasses?" he asked.

"Yes, what just happened?" asked Patrick's father sternly, as he came out of the sewing room. The other three parents were entering the upstairs hallway close behind him, pulling on bathrobes over their own nightwear.

"It wazza accident!" Patrick insisted. "We was just gonna play with her silly old teddy bear, but she scared me an' I fell onna her glasses."

The two mothers pushed past Donny and the younger children and rushed downstairs to console Nicole, while the two fathers herded the three little kids into Sally's bedroom and punished them.

Donny was left alone in the hallway in his pajamas, limply holding Nicole's teddy by one arm in his left hand. He was beyond angry at how his sister and his two male cousins had treated Nicole. Hearing them wail through the bedroom door as their fathers paddled their little butts did little to console him over their ill treatment of the girl he kind of thought of as his would-be girlfriend. He would have liked to spank them himself, but instead, he took the bear downstairs, to return it to Nicole.

Nicole's mom was sitting on the couch with her daughter's head in her lap, stroking Nicole's ears and hair soothingly. She saw her nephew had the bear, and motioned for him to come closer.

"Hey... I'm sorry about what happened. I got this back for you," Donny said, and he gently gave the stuffed toy to Nicole, hoping to cheer her up.

Nicole was still sobbing and hiccoughing and unable to speak. She nodded weakly in approval, but then hid her face from him in shame. Her mom made a gesture indicating it would be best for Donny not to speak further to his cousin just now.

Donny's mom was looking at the remains of her niece's glasses. They were broken clean in half at the bridge between the lenses. "The hinges at the temples are spring loaded, so thankfully they survived," she said quietly, leading her son to the kitchen, where they could talk without her niece hearing them. "But her brother sat on them hard enough to break the frame at the bridge. She doesn't have a spare pair, and they won't be able to replace them until they get home and can get her prescription to their family optician. Son, these frames are plastic. Do you have any model cement left over from that last model car you made? Do you think you can fix them?"

"Yeah, I have a whole tube left over, 'cause I don't open a new one until I've used up what was left from the last model kit I put together. But I think we'll need something to support the weak part too. Maybe a paper clip?," Donny said. "I'll see if I can come up with something, to get her through the rest of the weekend. If I can't figure it out, I'm sure dad can fix them well enough."

"It's good of you not to tease her about her glasses, or that teddy bear, son," Diana said. "Louise told me the kids at school tease her all the time about her glasses. She doesn't have a lot of friends, you know."

"She has me. She's my best friend, and I'll never, ever tease her. Not about her glasses, and not about that stuffed bear," Donny replied. "I just wish I could cheer her up."

"Well, get dressed and try your best to fix her glasses, and we'll see what we can come up with after breakfast to make her day better," his mom said thoughtfully.

===

Donny's mom made strawberry-topped waffles for everyone, which was one of Nicole's favorite breakfasts, and that made her feel a little better.

Donny came down to breakfast and gave her glasses back to her, with the break in the black plastic frames carefully glued together with model cement, and a bent paper clip taped over the bridge like a splint, held in place with white bandage tape wrapped around the bridge. The result was, unfortunately, the classic 'broken nerd glasses' look, with white tape on the bridge of the black frames, but they seemed to be stable enough to wear.

"Sorry I didn't have any black tape, but that should hold for now," he said. "I thought about coloring the tape black with a marker pen, but I was afraid the ink would rub off on your fur."

"That's okay. I can't look much more like a nerd than I usually do. Thanks for fixing them for me. I hate not being able to see without them," she replied.

"You know, it's shaping up to be a very nice day outside," Donny's mom said. "Donovan, why don't you take Nicole to the ice cream parlor between now and lunchtime, and maybe go for a walk in the park? It's too nice out for you to sit indoors all day and play your games."

"We wanna get ice cream too!" Patrick and the other kids chimed in.

"You three get no ice cream today," his father said, and Sally's father nodded in agreement. "Not after the way you treated your sister this morning. In fact, you three are going to help us to pull weeds in Dianna's flower garden beds all morning, as further punishment."

The kids started to wail about how unfair that was, especially Victor and Sally, who hadn't directly done anything to Nicole, and Nicole's mom held up her hand for silence. "If you help Dianna and Alexander in their garden this morning, you'll earn something fun for us to do later today, I promise. But Diana and I agree with your fathers. No ice cream for you this morning."

===

An hour or so later, after Donny and Nicole played a game together while waiting for breakfast to digest a bit, Donny's mom brought the older kids into the kitchen, and opened her purse. "Just make sure you have your phones with you, and be back here in time for lunch," she said, giving her son a $20 bill for the ice cream. "There's more than enough there to get anything you want. I expect you to bring back the change, and not to make pigs of yourselves and spoil your lunch. Now shoo! Go out and enjoy the sunshine!"

"Thanks mom. We'll be good," Donny said.

So Donny and Nicole found themselves walking down the tree-lined street to the ice cream parlor, with no one else to bother them or supervise them. It suddenly dawned on both of them that they would actually be alone together for the next two hours or more!

Nicole was still pretty morose and downtrodden, but her mood slowly improved as she recalled the pained looks of her little brothers and her cousin Sally as they knelt in the flower beds grubbing for weeds, while Donny and Nicole walked away on their own to get their ice cream.

"So, ummm, we like to go to this neighborhood ice cream parlor as a treat," Donny said, trying to lighten her mood and make conversation. "It's close enough to walk to from home, or on the way home from school. And they have tables outside, or we could, well, take the ice cream over into the park to enjoy."

"I remember the place. Your dad took us there last Summer," Nicole replied shyly. "Ummmm... In the park would be nicer, I think. You mom was right, it's a really nice day today. Ugh! I'd give anything for everyone to forget how this day started! This morning was just _so_embarrassing!"

"Hey, look, Nicole... I don't care about you and the teddy bear, okay? Or that you wear glasses. I think you're the coolest kid I know," Donny said. He stopped walking and looked her in the eyes. "I really mean that."

That finally got Nicole to smile and come out of her shell. "Thanks for sticking up for me this morning, Donny," she said shyly. "You're.... you're the nicest boy I know."

"And you're the nicest girl I know," he replied. "I'd... I'd rather hang out with you than anyone else I know." He wrapped an arm around Nicole and pulled her in, close to his side.

Nicole cheered up and her feelings grew even more for Donny. "Thanks a lot for that. It means more to me than you can imagine."

Donny, now knowing how highly Nicole thought of him, wondered if maybe there was some hope after all that she loved him as much as he loved her. Remaining thoughtfully silent, he resumed walking down the sidewalk with his cousin, but now they each had an arm wrapped possessively around the others waist, like a boyfriend and girlfriend would do. Donny's heart was racing with joy as they strolled down the street together.

Donny bought banana splits for both of them, and they carried them into the park to eat. The two lynx kids bypassed the crowded picnic tables near the playground, and went down one of the less-used trails that passed through the landscaped park area and along the banks of a small river. There was no one else in sight as they sat on a park bench in the cool shade, and began to eat their ice cream. They ate in silence for several minutes, each deep in thought and too embarrassed to say what was in their hearts.

Emboldened by their earlier conversations, and by the fact that there was no one close enough to hear them, Donny gathered up his courage and said, "Ummm, Nicole? There's... There's something I've wanted to say to you for a while now. You... I think you're really a beautiful person. Inside as well as outside. It always makes me happy to be doing things with you."

Nicole blushed and almost dropped her ice cream. She could hardly believe she was really hearing the boy of her dreams saying such nice things, and that it wasn't a dream. "That... that's so sweet," she said softly. "No one's ever..."

"I'm not done," Donny said, rushing headlong before his courage failed him. He might not get another chance like this for months, and he just _had_to unburden his heart, even if she slapped his face and called him a pervert. "I... if you weren't my cousin, I think I would have said this weeks ago. But I just can't hold it in any longer, and... I don't care if you're my cousin or not. I am... _extremely_attracted to you, Nicole. More than anyone else I have ever known. I... I love you, Nicole. I mean, I _really_love you, like a guy loves a girlfriend. Is... is that too weird?"

"Oh my God! I can't believe you just said that!" Nichole half whispered. The boy of her dreams had just confessed his love for her.

Donny was blushing and trembling, awaiting her reaction, and fearing he had just made a total fool of himself and that she couldn't possibly have such intense feelings for him as well. At her whisper, he hung his head and started to get up, mumbling, "S-sorry. I... I didn't mean to... Oh God, just drop a tree branch on me or something!"

"What? No, wait!" Nicole said, grabbing his wrist tightly and allowing her half-eaten banana split to fall onto the path, unheeded. "I_really_hope you _meant_what you just confessed, because if you really _do_love me that much, you've just made me the happiest girl in the whole world!" Tears came to her eyes and she stood up and looked him right I the eyes, and said slowly and deliberately, "Donovan Cartwright, I don't _care_if you are my cousin. I don't care what anyone else could ever say about you being my boyfriend! Because I would absolutely love to be your girlfriend! I - love - you!"

Donny felt like a huge weight had been removed from his shoulders. They stared love-struck into each others' eyes as he carelessly dropped his ice cream beside hers on the path and took both of her hands in his. Then slowly, gently, he leaned forward and kissed her, full on the mouth.

Nicole sighed and parted her lips, like she had seen girls do in the romantic movies, and her heart almost skipped a beat as she felt his tongue oh so tentatively seeking hers and touching in her mouth. She responded as best she could to her first ever French kiss, playing with his tongue with hers. The strength of the emotion flowing between them was almost overwhelming, and without exchanging a word they slowly sidled back over to the bench and sat down together, without once breaking their kiss. They remained lip locked for what seemed like an eternity, yet which was actually only closer to two minutes.

When they finally separated, they looked again into each others eyes and broke into a fit of happy giggles.

"Oh God! My first real kiss! That was my first real kiss! And I'm so happy it was with you!" Nicole gushed, as soon as she could stop giggling and speak again.

"Me too! All of that! Oh wow, that was so great! Kiss me again!" Donny said, pulling her close again.

After several more kisses, Nicole sighed and said, "Wow, that was so nice! Errr, I really don't wanna ask, but... what time is it? The sun seems pretty high in the sky now."

Donny reluctantly released her with one arm, keeping the other firmly around his cousin's waist, as he fished out his phone and checked the time. "Dang! Yeah, it's eleven thirty. We should start walking back. But I don't want this to end."

"Me either, but if we don't go back, we'll be in trouble," she said, as she knelt down and used the dropped plastic bowls and spoons from the two banana splits to scoop up the worst of the half-melted ice cream mess off the cinder walking path and dump it in the trash can beside the bench.

They slowly walked home, hand in hand, and happier than hell. Neither of them could stop smiling, and three times before they left the park, Donny stopped her and kissed her again, just as passionately as before. The last time it was in full view of dozens of people near the playground, but he just didn't care who might see them.

At one point, Nicole couldn't help looking at Donny's muscular arms, and smiling.

He noticed, asking almost jokingly, "Impressed?" He flexed his biceps for her like the guys in the strong man contests on the TV.

Nicole giggled and touched his arm, saying shyly, "Yeah, I am." She could feel a tingling in her groin as she touched the bare fur of his bicep.

"Do you... think I'm sexy?" he asked.

She wasn't sure of she dared to answer that truthfully, but before she had consciously made up her mind how to reply, she heard herself nervously saying, "Y-yes?" she blushed and placed a hand on his chest, and said more deliberately, "Yes. I think you are_very_sexy, Donny."

He pulled her close, and began stroking her back and flanks with his hands, even gently petting her stubby lynx tail, as he told her, "I think you're sexy too. A lot more sexy than those cartoon characters in our games. You're the real deal, better than any big boobed fantasy girl. I'd rather have you as my girlfriend than anyone else in the world. If only..."

Nicole felt weak in the knees, as she contemplated her feelings for her cousin, and the depth of the feelings he was expressing for her. "Donny... I'm so happy right now. I want more than anything for us to have a romantic night together. To really make out like a boyfriend and girlfriend. But it would just be too risky. My heart, and my... my body too... wants you so bad... If only we weren't cousins..."

"Yeah... I really wish we weren't cousins, so I could tell the whole world how much I love you and that I want you to be my girlfriend, for ever and ever!" Donny said sadly. "But what are we gonna do now?"

"I don't know. Try to act normal, I guess. Can't let anyone realize how much we love each other," Nicole replied slowly. "But the genii is out of the bottle now, and there's no stuffing it back in, is there? Even if we can fool everyone else, we can't deny what is in our hearts, can we? I _meant_what I said, Donny. I don't _care_if we're cousins. We can't do anything crazy, but... somehow, we have to find a way to do this more often. I don't want to let this go. Do you?"

"Not for a minute, girlfriend," Donny replied solemnly. "I meant everything I said too. You are the only girl in my heart, now and always. I won't be stupid and get us into trouble, and it's gonna kill me not to shout to the world how much I love you, but we gotta keep it cool, at least on the outside. But cousins or not, whatever we _can_manage to have between us, privately, I want us to have. Every chance we get. Eventually, we have to find a way to have time together fairly often, even if we have to wait until we're both old enough to live on our own!"

===

The two lynx were careful to stop holding hands before they got in sight of Donny's home. They went in through the kitchen door, and were greeted by Donny's mother.

"Feeling better now, Nicole dear?" Diana asked.

"Much better, auntie. Thank you. The ice cream and the walk in the park were just what I needed," Nicole replied.

"I really enjoyed it too, mother. Ummm, the park was really nice today, and the ice cream tasted great on a warm day like today," Donny added.

"Good! I'm glad to hear it," Diana said. "Well, your siblings have done their 'penance' and pulled several grocery bags of weeds each. I want you all to make up and promise to put this behind us, all right?"

"Yes mother," Donny replied.

"Yes auntie, we will," Nicole said.

"Excellent. Well, get washed up and we'll have lunch soon," Diana said. "After lunch, there is a movie that we have tickets for. It's something we parents of both families already had planned, before all this fracas broke out. As it happens, it isn't a movie that you kids are likely to enjoy, so you'll be staying here."

"Oh no!" Donny and Nicole said at the same time, both certain that the four adults were going to go out on their own see some gory action film or boring documentary, and leave the two oldest kids in charge of their younger siblings. Then Nicole continued with, "Auntie Diana, we don't mind making peace with Patrick, Victor and Sally, but do we really hafta babysit them tonight, so soon after what they did this morning?"

"Calm down dear! No you _won't_be babysitting them, nor are we getting a sitter for all five of you kids. We four adults are taking just the three little ones to a_children's_film aimed at kids their age, which just got released this week. And then we're taking them to Mikey Mink's Pizza Playground, which was supposed to be _their_big special treat for this weekend's visit. We know neither of _you_like eating at Mikey Mink's, and that you're too old for their playground area, but your younger siblings absolutely _love_the place. We all agreed that you and Donovan are old enough and responsible enough now to fend for yourselves here at the house for four or five hours, rather than siting through a childish film and trying to eat cheap pizza while listening to five and six year olds shrieking at an indoor playground. We were planning on ordering your choice of take-out pizza for your diner, and leaving you money to pay for it when it is delivered. Now, is that so terrible?"

Donny and Nicole stared at each other. Four hours of complete and total privacy, alone together in the house with no supervision or chance of being interrupted? Heck yeah!

"Oh, I guess that sounds okay, mom," Donny replied, trying not to sound overly eager, although his heart was thumping like a jack hammer at the possibilities this raised. "We have plenty of games to play. Can we get the pizza from Papa Gino's? I really like their deep dish pizza better than the ones from Poker Chip's Pizza Palace."

"Yeah, I guess that _would_be pretty nice. Thanks auntie Diana," Nicole replied, trying not to jump up and down with excitement. This was like a wish come true, after she and Donny had confessed their love for each other. She could hardly believe how lucky they were.

But how far did they dare go now, even with total privacy?