A rush of emotions filled his entire body. Their arms entwined about each other's bodies and he felt her leaning into him, tumbling together into another world. Despite her bandages she pushed herself on top of his body and continued to kiss him, moving to his throat and chest. Her hands were everywhere and he had begun responding instinctually for a change, forgetting the problems, forgetting his pain and the past. He was only here, now, with her. Nothing else mattered.

But then, her hands moved lower... down there. He thought he had been on fire before but that was nothing compared to what he felt now. His breath shuddered, his right hand found her breast and squeezed it gently. It felt like a bag of warm sand.

"Oooh" she moaned. "Oooh yes, Marrick, yes. There, please." And her hands, they kept going. Suddenly he panicked. "Wait, wait Gemma please."

She paused. She was sitting directly on top of him now, her hips moving subtly. Somehow her blouse had disappeared and she was only wearing her undershirt, with one of the sleeves slipping down. He forced his gaze away from her gorgeous body.

"Wait... I need to tell you something."

"What is it Marrick? You can tell me anything."

"I – I don't know what I'm doing. None of the Dorothy's books covered this part, and my Grandparents didn't exactly know much to tell me either." That was an understatement. The witch's books had a few drawings of the male (and female) body that had been very entertaining, but not exactly helpful.

"Oh Marrick, don't worry," she smiled warmly. "I haven't either."

"You? But you're so confident and beautiful. And so many men are pursuing you, I would have thought -"

She interrupted him with her laughter. "Me being pursued! Haven't you noticed the two others ladies chasing you?"

"That's besides the point! But there's something worse too. Gemma – I'm allergic to girls."

"What?" now she stopped moving entirely. "Oh no! Have I hurt you?"

"NO! Goodness no! I feel amazing. But I mean, if we want to go further, I can't... my... ummm." He sighed. He had to say it.

"If I try to be... fully with you, I might get damaged. It isn't touching you on the outside – that's fine. Even kissing has been okay. It isn't the outside."

"It's if you want to be inside of me, isn't it?" she said. He took a sharp breath. She really knew how to get to the point, didn't she? He couldn't speak, but he nodded. He glanced at her face. She didn't appear to be upset, but looked rather thoughtful.

"Marrick, do you remember what you did when we were fighting the Beast? You saved me."

"I made a shield."

"Could you protect us again?"

Waves of relief shook his entire being. Of course. Of course! The shield could protect them both from his curse. He pulled her close to him and squeezed her, feeling those soft bags of sand against his chest.

"You are amazing. Yes, I think that will work."

She smiled again, and traced a single finger down his chest. He didn't have chest hair like some males, but there were some parts of him that had hair. Her finger kept going lower. He gasped. She kissed him again, and whispered in his ear.

"Want to try?"

Of course he wanted to try!

"But I still don't know what I'm doing." Despite saying this, he was already making a flexible blue bubble-shield in exactly the right shape...

"I think we'll figure it out."

They did.

.

.

.

"Hey Warrick! Why are your pants and underwear in the cauldron?"

"Uhhhhh testing a new cleaning spell!"

"But I can just wash them, you don't need to -"

"NO! That's okay Selva! It's an experiment! Ha ha. Ha."