Big (horse)Shoes to Fill

Chapters

Once Upon a Zeppelin
Marooned
Comfort
Epilogue

Once Upon a Zeppelin

Stellar Flare walked past her son with a cheerful bounce in her step. Her bubbly demeanor was the antithesis of her son's dull melancholy. "Why the long face, Sunny sweetie?"

Sunburst leaned against the zeppelin window with his cheek in his hand, watching the landscape drift by below. The monotonous drone of the engines were hypnotic and was making him drowsy. What should have been an exciting time for him was marred by disappointment, and a little bit of dread. The fact that he knew that he should be excited, but wasn't, only made him feel worse. Sunburst shrugged without even looking at her. "I don't know," he replied.

"You don't know or you don't want to tell me?" she asked.

Sunburst bristled. His mother knew him better than he ever would have cared for. It was no use lying to her. "I guess I'm just disappointed," he said.

"What for?" she asked. "You just graduated college with your degree! You have your whole life in front of you!"

Sunburst groaned. "I don't have a job yet. I still don't even have my own place. I don't even have a girlfriend! What I have is debt!"

"Is that what you're worried about?" she asked, dismissively. "You know you can always work at your father's company. After all the time you spent there, you know how to do his job almost as well as he does!"

"Probably better," Sunburst muttered. But despite his crippling self-esteem issues, Sunburst was still prideful and his arrogance of youth made him want to make his own way in the world, rather than taking the easy path of nepotism.

"Is it something else?" she asked.

Sunburst shifted in his seat. "College was- it wasn't what I was expecting."

"College is a means to an end," Stellar said. "You go there to get a good degree, to get a good job, to have a good life. What else were you expecting?"

"I mean it wasn't what I was hoping for. The college experience," he said.

"What? You mean parties with drugs and alcohol?" she asked. "You're better than that."

Sunburst snorted. "Girls."

Stellar chuckled and tousled his hair with her fingers. "Such a boy. You're just like your father. I remember what it was like when I was your age. I was-" Stellar thought about it for a moment and her expression shifted into one more serious. "Actually I was already pregnant with you."

Sunburst glanced at her. He knew full well that his mother had him as an unplanned pregnancy when she was very young. That meant that she didn't have a career of her own like she otherwise would have wanted. So she projected that onto him, always emphasizing that he have a plan and 'not make the same mistakes she did'. As much as she would deny it, he knew he was undoubtedly one among those mistakes. At least his father did right by her, getting married before Sunburst was born.

But it also meant that Steller was still young and objectively quite attractive. Were she any other woman, Sunburst would go so far as to call her a milf. "But I never regretted having you," she added, leaning over to hug him. She wrapped her arms around his head and squeezed him against her considerable chest. She broke the hug before she literally smothered him. She held his cheeks in her hands and looked at his face. "I swear, you look more and more like your father every day. It's like he cloned himself with you. Speaking of, I should go check on him."

Stellar Flared walked to the bow of the dirigible, where her husband, Sunspot, was piloting the craft. "How's it going?" she asked.

"Our coastal tour of the South Luna Ocean is well underway!" Sunspot announce with pride. He leaned and looked over his right shoulder, back at their departure city, Las Pegasus. The iconic 'APPLEWOOD' sign was just barely visible on the hillside. "Tomorrow morning we'll have a great view of the sunrise over the mountain peaks on the port side."

"I'm got a good view of some peaks for you right now," Steller mewled, undoing the top button of her blouse.

"Mom, don't distract Dad while he's driving!" Sunburst yelled from the passenger lounge. The cab of the zeppelin was of a modest size. With two sleeping quarters, restroom facilities, a lounge and the cockpit. It meant there was very little space to be away from anyone. And it was hard for him to not overhear his parents.

"Oh please," Steller scoffed. "The autopilot does all the work. With the navigation set, you don't even have to touch the controls until we get to Mount Eris."

"Yeah yeah, and I'll turn it on once I'm done here," Sunspot said. "But still, it's pretty cool flying a zeppelin. You want to try taking the trim joystick for a while?"

"That's not the joystick I'm interested in," Stellar purred into her husbands ear and she ran her fingertips down along his chest.

Sunspot shrugged off her advances. "Stel, come on. We can do that at home. Just let me have some fun with this, okay?"

Stellar refastened the top button of her blouse and briskly walked out of the cockpit in a huff, closing the door to their sleeping cabin a bit harder than was explicitly necessary.

Sunspot rolled his eyes. "Pft. Women. Am I right?" Sunburst ignored him, in no way able to relate to the man who would so flippantly reject the advances of such a beautiful woman. "Son, come on up here!" Sunspot beckoned him to the cockpit. Sunburst could not pretend to have not heard him and begrudgingly joined his father. He sat in the co-pilot seat beside him. "Women. Am I right?" he asked again.

"I heard you the first time, Dad."

"Oh. Well you didn't laugh."

"Well I wouldn't know," he said, pointedly looking anywhere but at his father.

"What are you so pissy for?" Sunspot asked. "You mother is the one with her cycle coming up. I didn't think you'd be on your period too."

"It must be nice to be able to take Mom for granted like that."

"I was being polite," he retorted. "You really want to listen to your mother giving your old man a hummer on our family vacation?"

"...No."

"Come on now. Switch seats with me and take this thing for a spin." Sunburst and his father switched seats. "Go on now, give it a try."

Sunburst grabbed the flight control yoke. Giving it a push, and pull, pitching them down into a dive, and up again. He turned to the left, making the craft roll into a banked turn. He brought it back in the other direction, making it lean the other way. There was a thud behind them.

"Are you boys having fun up there!?" Stellar screamed from the bedroom. "Because you just threw me out of the bed!" She slammed the door closed harder. Sunburst leveled out the airship.

"Here, use the rudder pedals," Sunspot said, pointing at the flight deck floor. Sunburst pushed each of the pedals with his feet, making the craft turn left in right in yaw without rolling to either side. "There you go. Feel nice being in control, huh?"

"Yeah..." Sunburst agreed, knowing there was more to his father's words. There always was.

"I haven't felt that way in a long time," Sunspot lamented. "Ever since your mother, bless her... but ever since she got pregnant, I haven't felt like I've been in control of my own life."

"Thanks," Sunburst groaned.

"I'm not blaming you!" Sunspot said. "But someday, you'll understand. When you have a kid of your own, your whole life changes. You stop being the center of your own world. You know? Bah, I don't expect you to understand yet. I know your pissy about not having a girlfriend, but trust me, you don't need that kind of leech on your wallet yet! Just wait a few more years, once you've got your career, and life established, everything will turn around for you. You'll have girls lining up for you."

"Do you... regret me?"

"Of course not!" he answered immediately. "I love you and your mother. I wouldn't trade this life we have for anything. I just... I just wasn't ready to have to settle down when I did. There was other things I wanted to do. Like this, for example!" he said, motioning to the zeppelin around them. "Always wanted to fly an airship!"

"Would have been nice to help pay for school instead," Sunburst grumbled.

Sunspot nearly choked with laughter. "Buddy, this is a rental! For the cost of your tuition, I could have bought this thing outright!"

"Not really making me feel better."

"Son, I'm telling you, come for for my company. Put off buying your own place. Save your money. You'll have those loans paid off in four, six years tops!"

"I'm pretty sure bringing girls home while still living at your parents house went out of fashion in high school."

"You need to stop thinking with your dick. It ain't gonna do nothing except get you into trouble. Believe me."

"... I really can't help but feel like that's resentment," Sunburst said.

"Oh for fuck's sake. You really are you mother's son. I go through all this trouble of setting up this vacation and all anyone does is complain. Un-ass that seat." Sunburst got up and Sunspot took back the pilot seat. "Go eat some chocolate and cry into a pillow if your uterus hurts so much. I can watch the sunset by myself!"

Sunburst grabbed his book from the lounge coffee table and retired to his sleeping cabin for the night.

Sunburst awoke some time later to a loud boom. His cabin was so dark he couldn't even see his hand in front of his face. He reached over to turn on his bedside lamp, but nothing happened. In a flash, his whole room lit up bright white for an instant, and then dark again, followed by another loud boom of thunder.

"Mom!?" he called out. His hand fumbled along the walls of his room until he found the door. "Dad!?"

"Shit! Shit!" Sunspot cursed as he ran from his cabin up to the cockpit.

"Spot, what's going on!?" Steller's voice called out in the dark.

"We lost electrical!" Sunspot said, fiddling with the controls. "We must have drifted into a storm!"

"But there were no storms forecasted for our flightpath!" Steller said.

"I must have forgot to switch it back on last night!" Sunspot said. "Fuck!"

"Well switch it back on!" she said.

"What part of 'no electrical' are you not getting!? We must have gotten hit by lighting when we drifted into the storm!" He pointed out the window at the engine props, sitting silently motionless. "We're at the whim of the wind right now! Who knows how far off course we could be!"

The next flash of lightning lingered long enough to show the flat horizon of the ocean in every direction around them.

"We need to radio for help!" Sunburst said.

"What the fuck do you think the radio runs on, hopes and dreams!?" Sunspot shouted.

"Spot!" Steller pleaded.

Sunspot ignored her. "If I can find the breaker box I can get the engines restarted and-"

The next crash of thunder came in the same moment as the lighting as it struck the starboard engine strut, setting the engine ablaze beneath the zeppelin's gas bag.

Sunspot ran to the cockpit and leaned into the flight yoke with his entire body weight, without the aid of the powered hydraulic pumps. The ship pitched forward into a dive.

"Dad, what are you doing!?"

"I'm taking us down as fast as I can before we lose all control and fall out of the sky like a damn meteor! Get your mother to the aft port and ready the life raft!"

"But what about-"

"DO IT!"

Sunburst took his mother by her arm to the back of the airship to the docking port hatch. He opened it and the rain and storm blew inside. Sunburst pulled the handle on the emergency life raft compartment and the panel blew off its hinges and the connected raft began to rapidly inflate. The pitch of the dive steepened and the forward bilges burst from the heat of the flames. Everything began to glow orange in the light of the growing fire.

Another bilge ruptured above them. The roaring wind of the storm was drowned out by the wind rushing past them as they plummeted through the sky. Sunspot braced his legs against the console and pulled back on the yoke with everything he had. The altimeter spun down at a dizzying pace. But he didn't let go. The cabin and cockpit began to fill with smoke. But he didn't let go. He could feel his shoulders dislocating as the airship's elevators fought him. But he didn't. Let. Go.

Sunspot screamed in agony as he fought to level out the ship one last little bit. The bow of the cabin smashed into the rough surf of the sea, breaking the spine of the ship. Sunburst and Steller Flare were thrown from their feet into the floor of the raft from the impact.

The raft automatically detached from the inflation port as the hull hit water. Steller screamed out to her husband again and again as the front half of the ship buckled and was subsumed by the surf. The aft of the ship lifted out of the water for a moment. The awning of the air bladder burned a bit longer before being pulled under along with the rest of the cab, leaving the mother and son alone in the dark of the raging storm.

Steller cried out into the storm and surf for her missing husband until her throat was sore. The next flash of lightning gave Sunburst a glimmer of hope. A shape on the horizon. Maybe it was an island. Maybe it was just another dark cloud. But anywhere was better than where they were. He grabbed a plank of wood from the water to use as a paddle and tried with all his effort to make their way out of the storm.

The muscles in Sunburst's arms were burning by the time he managed to get them out from under the rain bands. Away from the clouds, the dark shape on the horizon was only silhouetted against the stars in the moonless sky. He couldn't tell if it looked a little bigger, a little closer, or if he was just imagining it. But he was too tired in either case. He pulled the plank into the raft with him and rolled over onto his back, panting on the raft floor, slumped against the inflated inner-tube with his limp arms at either side of him. His mother had already cried herself to sleep. His exhaustion had him soon joining her.

Marooned

The rhythmic sound of crashing waves approaching roused Sunburst from his sleep. The raft he was in heaved and listed, lifting him up and down. He righted himself just enough to look up over the edge of the raft as it pitched forward with wave rising behind him. The raft rode down the leading edge of the wave life a surf board until the nose of it ran aground against an errant piece of coral, tearing the rubber inflatable. Bubbles began to spew quickly from under the side of the rapidly-wilting boat. The wave crashed behind them and flung Stellar Flare forward overtop of Sunburst, throwing them both overboard into the shallow water as the raft capsized.

In the water, Sunburst's feet pound purchase in the sand and he helped his mother to shore. The flattened raft washed up on the beach beside them. He recovered the raft and dragged it up the beach to the treeline, where Stellar was waiting for him, shivering against a palm tree. The climate was tropical, but the recent storm had made the air quite cold that night. He held her close to share his body heat with her. It was then, in the dim pre-dawn light, that he realized that she was wearing nothing but her nightie, clinging to her body, and practically transparent from being wet. He could feel her stiff nipples poking his chest through the sheer fabric.

If it were any other woman, in any other situation, he might have been able to enjoy the experience. Though it was best that he didn't, as he was no better off himself, standing there pressed against her in just his satin boxers. For once, he was grateful for the effect of the cold on him.

Once he got her to stop shivering, he gathered up some loose branches and driftwood to prop up part of the deflated raft over a patch of soft grass. It was barely shelter, but it was better than nothing against the prevailing sea breeze until it was light enough for him to get a better survey of the surroundings. They huddled close together beneath the tarp, getting what sleep they could before the sun came up.

A sliver of sunlight crept across Sunburst's face to his eyelids. He winced and shied away from the light. It felt like it had very well been the worst night of sleep in his life. He felt tired, and his bed was uncomfortable. He rolled over and pressed his face into his pillow. At least that was soft. His mother moaned and his eyes shot open, realizing that he had been nuzzling into her chest. He sat up and held his breath. But she didn't stir, still asleep. His eyes subconsciously drifted over her body, beneath her nightie. He forcible turned himself away from her, mentally berating himself.

He got out from under the raft and looked around. It was still early, and the sun had just poked up above the small mountain. There would be no better time to scout out the area, since he wouldn't be able to get much done during mid day in the full sun. At the very least, he needed some time for his raging morning wood to go away.

Scaling the mountain was on his tentative to-do list, but his stomach reminded him that there were other pressing matters. He searched through the mangroves, bushes and trees. He found himself feeling very grateful for that botany elective he had taken a year prior, as he spotted some promising fruits. Although the coconuts and bananas were high in the trees, the Sea Grapes were in squat bushes in clusters of thirty or forty at a time, and were rich in vitamin C. He had been lost at sea less than a day, but the prospect of scurvy was already terrifying.

Sunburst picked up a large, fallen banana leaf and folded it into a conical bowl, filling it with as many of the grapes as it would hold, eating some as he worked. He turned around and started to retrace his steps.

"Sunburst!? Sun!" he heard his mother cried out in desperation.

"Mom!? I'm on my way!" he called back through the brush. He moved briskly back to the beach. As soon as she spotted him, she rushed over and wrapped her arms around him.

"I thought I lost you, too!" she cried.

"It's alright. I just went to try to find something to eat. Look!" He showed her the berries he found. Steller dried her eyes of the few tears she had left to give. she took a small handful of the grapes. "Be careful, they have little pits in them." He showed her how to split one open to get the large seed out before eating it, staining his fingers purple.

She bit into a particularly juicy grape, the the juice dribbled down her chin and dripped onto her nighty. She looked down at herself and blushed a deep crimson, realizing for the first time just how she looked as she crossed and arm across her chest. The patterned lace of lower half barely served to hide the rest of her modesty. When she finally looked back at him, he was already making a point of looking literally anywhere else.

"We should um-" Sunburst's voice cracked. "We should get back to the raft and try to make some kind of camp."

"Camp!?" she asked. "How long do you think it's going to be before we get rescued?"

Sunburst opened his mouth to reply but it occurred to him that he wasn't exactly sure. Stellar crawled back under the makeshift shelter and Sunburst grabbed a twig and smoothed out a patch of sand.

"Let's see... the sunset last light was just off the starboard bow, which means our last heading was, what, southwest?" he asked her. She shrugged. "What time did dad go to bed?"

"Not too long after sunset," she said.

"It's May, so that would be about what, seven, eight in the evening? So if we were off course for... how many hours... what time did we lose power? Two... three in the morning?"

"The clocks weren't working so I'm not sure."

Sunburst scratched the numbers into the sand as he worked. "So if the winds were carrying us at.. say, 25 miles per hour... for seven hours... that makes a linear radius of... that... and that squared, times Pi... gives a search area of..." Sunburst sat back and looked at the final number.

"What?" she asked.

"Shit..." Sunburst didn't want to believe it. He double checked his math. But even with his conservative estimates, "That's a search area the size of Saddle Arabia." He looked over at his mother. There was no good in shielding her from the truth. "They may never find us."

She took it rather well. Her lip trembled for only a moment, but then she just gave a firm nod. "So what do we do?"

Their objective could not be simpler, yet more difficult. "Survive."

"Right, but how?" she asked.

"The basics. Food, shelter and water," he said. "Something better than this," he held up the remaining berries and motioned to the remains of the raft. "We can't keep using that. We'll need it to collect rain water. I can try to make an A-frame or a lean-to with some branches and leaves for a thatched roof."

"For food," he continued, "I saw some coconut and banana trees. But we're going to need some kind of protein mixed in or else all this fruit juice and fiber is going to go right through us. So that means fish. I hope."

"We're gonna fish? We don't even have any fishing line."

"Spear-fish. Just stab them right in the water," he explained. "Of course, we're getting a little ahead of ourselves. We're going to need fresh water much sooner. After I make a better shelter, we can form the raft into a bowl to collect rain. But first..." he trailed off, still avoiding looking at her.

"First, what?" she asked.

First we should make you... some kind of... coverings."

"What? You mean like a hula skirt and a coconut bikini?" she asked.

"I guess. There are some creeping vines and stuff I could use. Maybe strip some sapling bark, if I could find something to use as a knife-"

"Sunburst," she interrupted. "It just seems a little unnecessary. I mean, compared to getting food and water." He still refused to look at her. "Sun?" He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. She lowered her arm from covering her breasts. He looked away again. "Sun, this is awkward for me too, but you're going to need to get over this little hang up if we're going to get anything done. Okay."

"Y-yeah. I- I know," he stuttered.

"Look, I'm sorry. I didn't think we'd be on an island expedition when I put this on last night, okay? This was supposed to be for-" The word hitched in her throat for a moment. "It would have been our anniversary today."

"Oh... right," he realized.

"For all the good it did..." she grumbled as her grief shifted into anger. "It would have been nice to have made love one last time..." Sunburst groaned. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you more uncomfortable."

"No it's not that. I just-" He put his face into his hand. "I just realized that I'm going to die a virgin."

Stellar slapped his hands away from his face. "You stop that right now! You're not gonna die- we're not gonna die! Not here! We're gonna get rescued, and when we get back home you're gonna be a famous survivor and every girl is going to want you! You'll see! So don't talk like that!"

"Sorry, Mom."

Stellar ate the last couple of Sea Grapes and huffed. "Now you said there was other food? Bananas?"

"And coconuts."

"Alright. Well let's get to it! Better to keep busy than to just stand around feeling sorry for ourselves!"

"Alright." He led her through the brush to where he had found the banana tree. "Up there, see?" The tree was a little over twice as tall as he was, and the bananas hung a bit down from the top. "If I can just get up there, I can pry some from the bunch and toss them down."

Sunburst grasped the base of the tree and tried to climb up. But the trunk was smooth and he wasn't wearing climbing boots or belt. He barely made it up a couple feet before sliding back down. All the while, the bananas hung there, taunting him.

"Let me try," she said. Sunburst gave her a funny look. Sure, he was no athlete himself, but he knew for certain that he was stronger and more agile than his mother. "Give me a leg up."

"Uh-"

Stellar put her hands on his shoulders and stood him with his back against the tree. "Put your hands like this." She straightened her arms and intertwined her fingers and cupped them in front of her abdomen. Sunburst did the same, forming a step for her. She put one foot into his hands and stepped up onto his shoulder with her other foot, hiking up her nighty.

It was at that precise moment, that Sunburst learned two very important things about his mother: One, she slept commando, and two, the carpet matched the drapes. In their current position, the bare pussy of the woman who birthed him was mere inches from his face. And the way she had one of her legs lifted had her spread to an obscene degree. He would have closed his eyes or looked away, but the last fuse blew in his mind. He just stared at it, awestruck, like watching a car wreck in slow motion. For the briefest instant, he couldn't tell if he had actually caught a hint of her scent, or if his subconsciousness had just imagined it among the beach scent of the ocean.

She shifted her weight onto his shoulder and lifted her other foot out of his hands and onto his other shoulder, standing completely above him. From where he was, he at least had the decency not to stare up between her legs the whole time. He just stared off a thousand yards into the distance. The image of her womanhood seared into his retinas. Every line and curve of contour of her vulva. The perfectly sculpted triangle landing strip just above, the same beautiful shade of reddish-orange as her hair. His mother or not, it was a sight that could live in his mind rent-free for the rest of his life.

However long, or short that might be, in this place.

"Sun!"

"YEAH!" he answered, a bit too loudly, keeping his eyes on the distant horizon.

"I've got a bunch. Help me down."

"OKAY!" Sunburst cupped his hands together in front of himself again.

"No, you need to help me down. My hands are full. Hold my waist." Sunburst reached up with his arms like a referee signaling a good field goal. But her legs were a good deal longer than his arms. She started to squat and his hands moved up along her thighs to her hips. "Alright, I'm gonna hop down. Try to break my fall." She stepped backwards off of his shoulders and he slowed her fall. As she fell into his field of view, he realized that his hands had gone up under her nighty and had flipped up the front of it, flashing her to him again.

He let go of her and stumbled off to the side, past the tree trunk. With her hand full, she couldn't catch herself in her landing and she stumbled with him. In a panic, she let go of the bananas sending them scattered all around them. She stopped herself from crashing to hard, but still landed on top of him, straddling his lap briefly before rolling forward and off to the side.

Sunburst quickly rolled in the other direction and winced, trying very hard to not obviously cup his groin.

"Are you okay?" Stellar asked as she dusted the sand off her.

"Yup." Sunburst squeaked as he started gathering up the bananas with her, taking care to face away from her.

"Check if they're squished. I think I landed on one."

"Kay." Sunburst groaned as he placed his gathered bananas in a pile on the ground. "Why don't you bring these back to camp. I- I'm gonna go see if I can... find some more of those grapes, I think."

Sunburst walked away from her, in the opposite direction of their camp. He walked past several sea grape bushes, grabbing a handful each time to eat as he went. He could gather more on the way back. He walked along the beach until the direction of his shadow had changed enough for him to know he was at least a most of the way to the opposite side of the small mountain in the center of the island.

"This should be far enough," he decided. He kicked off his boxers and kneeled on the sand, setting to work on dealing with his raging erection. Try as his imagination might, he could not get the image of his mother out of his mind. The wet, sheer fabric clinging to her perky breasts. Her pussy, mere inches from his face.

It was not his proudest fap.

On his way back, he folded a banana leaf into a bowl shape to gather more grapes. When he got back to camp, Stellar was stand down by the shoreline, ankle-deep in the water, looking out at the sea. He was about to call out to her, when she squatted slightly and lifted her nighty to start peeing into the ocean.

Sunburst was silently grateful that he had just taken care of himself or else he would have had a real problem seeing that. She thought she was alone, and there wasn't much else in the way of options. But none the less, there was something inexplicably erotic about the sight to him.

Another thought struck him, remembering a particularly notorious survival show episode involving a rather extreme form of 'recycling' to conserve water. He winced and mentally pushed away the thought of her squatting over his thirsty mouth.

He quickly doubled back into the underbrush of the island and waited for her to finish. He then, loudly, announced his return, before moving back into sight of her. Now decent. At least, as much as she could be in her scant dressing.

"I brought more grapes," he said, setting them in the shade of the shelter. "I'm gonna see about getting some coconuts too," he told her before he turned to go out again."

"I can help again!" she said.

"No!" he said, a bit more terse than he meant to. "I mean- no thank you. The palm trees with coconuts have more texture on the trunk so I should be able to climb it myself this time."

"Well- I should still come along," she insisted. "I can at least help to carry more back."

Sunburst couldn't rightly argue with that logic. "Alright fine... follow me." He walked back to the coconuts he had found. The trunk had ridges like inverted shingles. It wasn't much for footing, and it was tough on his bare feet. But it was enough to be climbable. At the top, he broke free the coconuts and carefully dropped them down to the sand, making sure she was a safe distance away. Once he got all he could, he descended. The way down was harder.

About four feet off the ground, his foot slipped and he fell. One of the shingles caught the leg of his boxer shorts and tore them right up through the waistband, nearly catching something more tender. Sunburst tumbled onto the sand but was otherwise unhurt. He scrambled to grasp the tattered remains of his boxers closed.

"Oh my goodness, Sun! Are you okay!?" Stellar cried, rushing to his side.

"Yeah, I'm fine. It's sand and I didn't fall far."

"No, I mean... are you okay... down there?" she asked with more concern.

"What? Yeah! I said I'm fine!" he said, shirking away from her.

"Well I just- I didn't mean to look but... it looked bruised."

"What!?" Sunburst shuffled away from her and faced away from her to inspect himself. His penis was purple. So was his hands. He covered himself and faced her. "No, it's-" He showed her his hands. "It's just grape juice stains I got on my hands."

"But then why is your-" a massive puzzle piece fell into place in her brain. "Oh- OH!"

Stellar blushed.

Sunburst blushed harder.

"It's nothing be ashamed about-"

"Mom!"

"I'm just saying, in a stressful situation-"

"MOM! Stop! Can we just..." Sunburst tried to gather up the coconuts with one arm, while holding his boxers closed with the other. He gave up in frustration. He grabbed the elastic waistband and pulled it tight to tie it into a knot. The gash up the front of it did nothing for his modesty. He stuffed a few banana leaves into his waistband as a kludged hula skirt. It wasn't much. But it would have to do until he could figure out a better solution.

He gathered up as much as he could carry and started walking back to camp. She followed after him.

"I'm just saying, it's perfectly natural to-"

"Oh my god, stop..."

Stellar looked down at the coconuts in her arms, accompanying the other two globes on her chest. "I mean, I'm sure I'm not helping with these like this."

"Mom!"

"I mean, if I had know were were going to be stranded on an island, I would have worn something better than... well, practically nothing." Sunburst tried to ignore her. "And I mean, look at you. You're not exactly-"

"I know!" he snapped at her. Stellar stopped talking and they walked to the sound of nothing more than the breeze and the surf until they were almost back to camp.

"I'm sorry," he started to apologize.

"No, I'm sorry," she said. "You know how I get when things don't go according to plan and I get stressed out. I can't shut up. I shouldn't have teased you."

"Hmmm." he grumbled. It was an acknowledgement, if not explicitly an acceptance of her appology.

"And really, You have nothing to be teased about," she added.

"W-what!?"

She smiled. "I'm just saying, your father would have been proud... Or envious."

"Oh my god..." Sunburst walked a little faster away from her. He could look her in the eye right now. But part of him felt a small glee of pride at the off-color compliment. Even if it was from her.

"UNF UNF UNF!" Sunburst grunted and panted, gripping with both hands as he pounded away. But it would take far more than drift wood or the smooth stones of the shore to break open a coconut.

Stellar Flare sat by and watched. She had the courtesy of crossing her legs, but it did nothing to hide her chest. Sometimes she would keep her arm across her nipples. Sometimes she would forget. But none of that mattered to Sunburst while she ate a banana. Even though she wasn't doing anything wrong, there was just something so inherently lewd about it to him. Or maybe it was just because of where his mind already was.

"This isn't gonna cut it," he told her, wiping the sweat off his forehead. It was a waste of effort, hydration, and precious calories. "I need a more efficient tool. Hard as stone, but sharper than the stick. If I'm going to have any luck in finding such a thing, it's going to be up, away from the erosion of the shore."

Sunburst hiked up the side of the mountain. It wasn't large. But it was definitely more than a hill. Most of it was sandy dunes interspersed with patches of vegetation. But the top third of it was rugged crag. He would be able to get some sharp stones from there for sure.

And it would be easier to circle the smaller circumference of the peak at elevation, to better survey the whole of the island. To his dismay, in every direction he looked outward, there was no other sign of land. It was ocean as far as the eye could see.

Much of the rock he encountered was porous and brittle. "Pumice," he mused, citing from his dabbling into geology. Pumice was, of course, an igneous rock. Which of course meant that this island had to be, at least at some point, a volcanically active spot.

The relatively short walk around to the far side of the summit yielded his quarry. A black streak in the side of the mountain where a flow of ancient lave had cooled slowly enough to form a different kind of stone. Obsidian.

"Please, please, please..." Sunburst quietly prayed as he walked along the edge of the outcropping. "Ah ha!" He shouted in triumph. He found a broken piece about the size and shape of a slice of pizza. One side was razor sharp, and the other end was blunt enough to be held like a handle. It was perfect!

Ahead of him in the distance, he saw a glimmer of sunlight reflecting off of something. He had come this far. Going the rest of the way around the mountain would be shorter than doubling back. As he got closer to where he had seen the shimmer, he realized it was a small stream of water. He cupped some in his hands. It smelled a bit of sulfur, but it was fresh. Looking further up the mountain, he could see the spring was emerging out from a cave under a small, rocky overhang.

If they could hollow some coconuts, they'd have a means of collecting and storing water without having to wait on the unreliability of the rain. But that would have to wait until tomorrow. The sun was starting to get low, and the sky was turning orange. Once it dipped below the horizon it would be much harder to navigate his way back to the camp.

Though coming down the hillside from the opposite direction, in the fading light of the evening, he was still able to recognize the familiar section of shoreline where they had set up their shelter. The bright yellow material of the raft stuck out from the beige and green tones of the land. The last sliver of sunlight vanished into the western sea, leaving the world in twilight.

Just beneath the overturned raft, he could just barely make out the rust-orange figure of his mother. Likely worried sick that he had taken so long to return. He was about to call out to her but she beat him to it.

"Sun!" she cried out. She lurched forward from where she was kneeling in the sand onto her hand. But she didn't seem to be calling to him. In fact, she was facing away from him. From where he was, he saw a quick flash of yellow underneath her. And then again. He was confused at first. But then, he had never seen his mother masturbating before.

Her free hand gripped a large banana, plunging it in and out of her pussy. Standing behind where she was kneeled over, he had an unobstructed view of the action. There was no pretense of pacing, or drawing out the pleasure. It was a frantic, desperate act to just get herself off as fast as possible. But the smooth, slender shape of the banana was proving difficult for the task. "Ngh, Sun, I'm so close..." He could hear her frustration in her moans.

As before, he slowly backed away, to wait for her to finish in privacy and then make his approach loudly known from a greater distance. But he tripped over something in the dark, yelping as he crashed into some leafy ferns and making a ruckus.

"Sunburst!?" Stellar called out into the darkness.

"Yeah, I'm over here," he yelled. "I'm on my way back. I just tripped over something." He laid there in the brush a moment longer to give her a chance to make herself decent again. He stood up once he heard her shuffling through the brush towards him.

"Are you okay?" she asked with concern.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he assured her. "Better than fine actually. I found this." He showed her the piece of obsidian. She reached out to take it. "Be careful, it's sharp."

"Those coconuts don't stand a chance now, huh?" she said.

"Yeah, but that can wait until morning," he said, feeling the cool ocean breeze of the night blowing in. They walked together back to the shelter. One of the bananas on the ground was coated in sand where it was wet and sticky. And despite them being outdoors, the space under the raft had a very specific aroma. And it wasn't the ocean. Stellar hoped he didn't notice. Sunburst pretended not to.

They laid down in the patch of soft grass, shielded from the ocean breeze by the raft. It was the best they could hope for until they were able to get a fire going. Somehow.

Comfort

The cold at Sunburst's back coaxed him against the the warmth in front of him. He wrapped his arms around it and hugged it closer like a security blanket. An alien motion beside him stirred him from his slumber. The grass under him was a far cry worse than even the least comfortable mattress. But he was distracted from that fact by the warm body of his mother beside him.

Where his arm laid across her abdomen, it marked the lower boundary of her nighty, which had ridden up in her sleep. Likewise, the knot in his tattered boxers had let go at some point in the night, leaving them laying on the ground behind him. He was effectively spooning her bottomless. He tried to move away, but he found his morning wood was lodged firmly between her thighs. The momentary tension caused a bit of friction of the side of his shaft against her pussy.

Her arm, draped over his held fast in her sleep, unwilling to lose her warm shield from the cold wind. Her fingers intertwined with his, pulling his arm with hers up along her body, under the thin fabric of her nighty to cup her breast. Whether it was the cold or something else, her nipple was as hard as a pencil eraser in his palm. Were it any other woman's tit, he would have been happy to be obliged, and squeeze it in his greedy hand.

But this was not just any woman. And he was paralyzed by fear to do anything but remain as still as possible and hope she didn't wake up to her son groping her. Though he couldn't consciously move, unconsciously... his dick throbbed harder against the warmth between her legs. This did not go unnoticed.

"... missed this..." she cooed in her sleep and reached down with her other hand, cupping the tip of his dick in her hand giving him a firm squeeze, rubbing it against her pussy. If she wasn't already wet before, he could feel how much she was now.

"... mmm, Sun..." He couldn't help be feel partly responsible for leaving her in the lurch with his interruption earlier. He certainly would not have annoyed it if he had been the one to be interrupted. Stellar rolled her hips against him, making the tip of his dick slide back and forth against her pussy. Her hand on his dick blindly tried to help angle him inward. He tried one last time to back away, but it only gave her the space she needed to get him where she wanted it to go. Another roll of her hips and he felt the tip of his dick poking just inside his mother's entrance. She cooed again. The hand holding his to her breast reached back and grabbed his hip to pull him against her and she scooted back.

Sunburst felt his shaft enveloped in the velvety warmth of her vagina as she took her son's virginity. He couldn't tell if he whimpered or she did.

"...shhh, Burst will hear..."

He realized that she thought he was his father. She was dreaming of her late husband. He couldn't tell if that made him feel better or worse. All he could think about was the feeling of his dick inside her as she continued to squirm on it. Part of him no longer cared who this woman was. Part of him, a big part of him, wanted nothing more than to grab her hips with both hands and fuck her right into the beach.

But a part of him larger still, knew that such reckless action would have consequences he would never be able to escape, even here, hundreds of miles away from anything even resembling authority. He couldn't bear the thought of being trapped on opposite sides of an island with his mother who couldn't stand to even look at her son after that. But that moral part of him was losing ground to his lust with every second. This might be his only chance to have sex before they die on this island. And he would regret throwing that away. But he would regret far worse the alternative.

With his last shred of willpower, he rolled away from her onto his back, pulling out as he did. His dick sprang free with a wet slap against his belly.

The brisk, cool air against Stellar's exposed back partially stirred her from her sleep. Sunburst watched her roll over towards him. "...Spot...?" she mumbled, barely even opening her eyes. Her hand reached out in the darkness, touching his chest. Her hand trailed down his abdomen to his erection. She languidly shifted her body over to straddle him. She could feel her hot breath on his neck as she leaned over to kiss him. Her cheek bumped into his glasses.

Her son's glasses.

Stellar took a sharp breath from the adrenaline rush, and the sudden sobriety it brought. She looked at him in the dim moonlight but it was surely him.

"Sunburst?"

Sunburst kept his eyes shut, pretending to be asleep. He almost forgot to breathe, with it held in terror of being found out in what had just happened. She had said his name no quieter than other times she had bid him to wake in the past for school. But he kept his eyes shut, pretending to be asleep, and hoping beyond all hope that she believed it.

Stellar was wide awake and off him in an instant. Her dream of Sunspot had been so vivid and felt so real. But the reality of her situation was clear. Her husband was dead, and she was still stranded on an island with her son. The details of her dream flittered away in moments, but she worried about just how much she had done to her son.

She scurried out from under the shelter. Sunburst squinted an eye to watch her walk partway down to the shore and sit on the beach. He felt cold. But he could tell she felt worse.

He waited and watched her. He waited and hoped that she would come back. He wanted so much to tell her that it wasn't her fault. Or something. Anything.

Just five more minutes. That would be enough time for him to pretend to wake up and then he could go comfort her. Five more minutes and his erection would be gone. Just five... more... minutes...

Sunburst felt the warm sunlight on his face. The backs of his eyelids glowed pink, stirring him awake. He blinked and yawned. And then he sat up with a start.

"Mom!?" he called out. He looked over at where she had been sitting on the beach. She was gone. He had fallen back asleep and now she was nowhere to be found. He crawled out from under the shelter and looked around. He was caught off guard by a stiff breeze. His ripped boxers hung around his ankle. He tried to tie the waistband again, but it just ripped worse. "Fuck it." He held his tattered garment in his hand and jogged down the beach to look for his mom.

He didn't have to go far. Just around the bend, she was squatting in the shallow surf. He feared that he had caught her relieving herself again. But like him, she was nude. Unlike him, she was throwing her nighty into the water and pulling it back out again.

"Mom?" he called out to her.

Her attention snapped to him in an instant. "Sunburst! You're awake!" Her hands moved to cover herself. It made Sunburst aware of himself and he held his boxer shreds in front of himself. It was a fruitless gesture for both of them.

Stellar shook her head and scoffed. "Whatever. It's nothing you haven't already seen." She let her hands fall to her side and she turned around to reach into the water to retrieve her nighty. His eyes drank in her luscious butt as she bent at the waist.

"Are you trying to wash that?" he asked.

"No, I'm trying to fish. Like, with a net." She held the wet, sheer material in her hand. She didn't bother to put it back on. It would have been practically invisible anyway. All it would do is make her cold.

"Oh. I figured we could try spear-fishing. But I was going to say, if you needed to wash that, I found a fresh-water spring yesterday."

Stellar looked at the useless fabric in her hand. "Meh. Why bother? But that spring does sound good. I'm parched!"

"It's up on the other side of the mountain," he said. "I figured we could bring some coconuts to fill once I open them with that obsidian I found." Sunburst turned and walked back to the camp.

"Sounds like a plan. Well, lead the way. I've got the rear," she said.

Truer words were never spoken.

At camp, Sunburst stabbed at each coconut with the obsidian. Despite his nude mother squatting nearby to watch, the sharp blade in his hand did well to keep his erection at bay. He opened each coconut and they each took turns drinking the coconut milk. It was bland, but served to quench their thirst for the time being. It left them with several empty vessels to transport fresh water back. Her nighty served better to carry the coconuts than it ever did as a garment. His tattered boxers were even more useless. But as she said, it wasn't something they hadn't seen before.

He led her to the stream. It was fortunate that he was the one that knew the way. He didn't think he'd be able to survive following her climbing up the mountain. At the stream, he set to work filling each of the coconuts. Stellar was gracious enough to give him some space, for which he was very grateful. She followed the stream up the mountainside.

"Sunburst, come here!" she called down to him. "You have to see this!" Sunburst stopped what he was doing and jogged up to where she was.

"Mom?"

"In here!" her voice came out of the cave. He climbed up to where she was, and looked in the cave. It wasn't huge. Maybe only a bit bigger than a large bathroom. Appropriate given the main feature of the cave. Stellar Flare knelt beside the steaming pool of water. "It's a hot spring!" she squealed. She cautiously dipped her finger in the water, then the rest of her hand. "And don't blame the smell on me!" she said.

"Yeah, I know. It's the sulfur," he said. He dipped his foot into the water. It was a very pleasant bath water temperature. He looked at the steam rising out to the ceiling of the cave, and the dripping as condensation into the channels around the edge of the cave, out to the stream. It was their own distilled water source. The interior of the pool was lined with calcium limestone deposits, giving it a smooth finish. He slid down into the warm water.

"How is it?" she asked.

"It's heaven," he said, leaning his head back against the side of the pool.

Stellar stepped in after him. It really was only just a little bigger than a bath tub. As such she had to sit in front of him, between his legs, with her back to him. She leaned her head back against his chest. She could feel the salt and grime washing away. She could feel her worries and stress melting away. She could feel... something poking her in the back.

Sunburst tried to pretend he didn't have a raging erection pinned between them. And Stellar tried to pretend to not notice. But it was plainly obvious to both of them.

"Sun-"

"I'm sorry!" he blurted.

"It's okay. It's... don't worry about it." She tried not to move too much. Even their slightest shifting in the water created friction there. Even if she couldn't see it, she could feel how big it was. The silhouette of it in the dark last night was still seared into her memory. She realized she was biting her lip. She could only imagine the agony he must have been in, himself.

A wicked thought crossed her mind. She knew it was a bad idea, even as she had it. Perhaps she wasn't in her right mind. But she threw caution to the wind. "I uh, had an interesting dream last night," she said.

"O-oh yeah?" he asked, trying to not let his voice tremble.

"Yeah. I dreamed about your father, actually," she said. She shifted in the water just slightly, rubbing against him. "I miss him. I've missed him for a long time. He hadn't been the man I married for a long time. I had hoped that this trip would help us reconnect but..."

Sunburst's arms reached around her shoulders to hug her. "I'm sorry, Mom. I know you're grieving."

"I don't just mean grieving for him dying. I mean..." she sighed. "I grieved for our relationship a long time ago. Part of me thinks we stayed together to raise you, and another part of me thinks we stayed together because we were both too comfortable, too lazy to change. And I felt like I was too old to start over again."

"No, Mom! You're not old!"

Stellar chuckled. She wanted to dismiss the compliment out of habit. But it made her feel so beautiful to hear it. "You really think I'm still young?" she asked, fishing for more compliments.

"Yeah!"

"Pretty?"

"Of course!"

"Sexy?"

"Ye- er, I mean..." Sunburst stumbled over the words.

"It's okay. You don't have to say it," she said, rubbing her back against his erection. "I can tell I have a fan."

"I'm sorry."

"I said don't worry about it." For a long minute they just sat there and stared out of the cave, at the endless ocean around them. "I guess what I was worried about most, about leaving his was... you trying to fill his shoes."

"You mean at the company?" he asked.

She chuckled again. "No, I knew you would do that anyway. I meant, everything else. Being the breadwinner, taking care of the house, and..." she trailed off for a moment, "...and me." She took a deep breath. "But these last couple days, here, stranded on this island... you've really stepped up. You've taken care of us both and... I'm not worried about you being able to fill his shoes when we get home."

"When!?"

She smiled. "I can hope," she mused. "But it's just that... there was always one thing I was worried about. Especially when things between he and I started to deteriorate. That one role you would never be able to fill."

"What's that?" he asked.

"..."

"...?"

"You really do look just like your father, you know that?" She put her hand over his, on her shoulder.

"So you've told me many times."

"Sun, we could be stuck here for a very long time."

"I know, Mom."

"You have big shoes to fill." She pulled his hand down over her chest to cup her breast. "Sun, I..." His hand moved on his own, giving her breast just the slightest squeeze.

She stood up out of the water. In spite of her leading him on, Sunburst thought that he had done something wrong, something to upset or anger her. But she didn't step out of the tub. She turned around and squatted in the water in front of him. She reached down and held his penis, aligning it with her pussy. But before she went any further, she stopped and took his hands with her, putting them on her hips.

"I need this, Sun. But I won't make you do anything you don't wan-"

Sunburst didn't even let her finish. He pulled her hips down onto him as he thrusted up into her. His hands moved from her hips to wrapping around her back to hug her close. His hips made small, rapid, desperate humps into her. He pressed his face into her chest and cried out in cathartic agony and ecstasy. Stellar's tears were silent and she held his head in her hands.

It wasn't the buck-wild fuck-fest of a trashy porno. Their small, frantic motions of love-making sent ripples and waves of the warm water splashing out of the pool, making the cave steam up even more, turning it into a sauna. Hidden away in the fog, they let out all of their fears and doubts, intertwined together in a passionate embrace. They might never be rescued. They may very well die on this island. But they had each other. And that was enough. In each other's arms, it was all the comfort they needed.

Epilogue

Stellar Flare laid on the beach by the cooking fire. She recalled watching him struggling to get a fire started with some dry grass and tinder, rubbing a couple sticks together. A reflective glint from the sun gave her an idea. She took the glasses off his face and focused the sunlight on the tinder, setting it aflame. "The answer was right in front of your nose all along."

It was easy for him to miss the obvious things. Though he would say she was quite the distraction. But they took the problems they encountered as they came. With a supply of water, fruit and fish protein, they could survive. They even managed to make a rather fine thatch shelter by the time the next full moon came around.

Stellar Flare had noticed that the full moon coming around, something else didn't. She was late. Though it should have hardly come as a surprise to her. After their first time, he was insatiable. Morning, noon, and night.

And she loved it.

But such things did not come without consequence.

Sunburst returned from another fortuitous round of spear fishing, setting the evening's catch over the flames to cook.

"How are you doing?" he asked.

"I'm fine," she told him. "Same as I was the last time you asked. And the time before that. Ever since-"

"I know," he said. "I just don't like being away from you for too long. Especially now." He put his hand to her heavily gravid abdomen. "I just worry about you. All the time."

"Yeah well you should have thought about that before you came inside me," she said. "In fact, I don't think you even tried. Not even once."

"Well I mean, after the damage was done..." he hugged her and kissed her at the base of her neck, working his way up to her ear lobe in that way that he knew would make her melt in his arms.

"I swear, it was like you got even more horny!" she groaned. "I didn't think that was possible."

"Are you kidding? I love how you look!" Sunburst nuzzled his face against her belly. "But... I'm just worried. When the time comes. What are we going to do?"

"People did it for millennia before modern medicine," she said.

"Yeah but..." he didn't want to say out loud the chances of things going badly.

"Shhh," she hushed him, stroking his head as he nuzzled her. "Don't worry about that. To be honest, there was a time that I didn't think that we would survive this long. So really, every day we have is a gift. So just enjoy it while we can." She lifted his chin to kiss him before she laid down on her side and lifted her leg. "Now come on. Make momma feel good."

"Ship!" Sunburst yelled. "SHIP!"

He ran down the beach to the smoldering cooking fire. He threw on a heap of brush and wood to bring it up to a full blaze. He double-checked the silhouette on the horizon. He would only have one shot at this. At the last second, Stellar put her hand on his arm.

"Are you sure?" she asked. "If we go back... we can't keep..."

"I know," he said. He put his hand on her belly. "But this isn't about us anymore." He threw the remains of the rubber raft into the fire. The plastic burned in a thick, inky-black column of smoke reaching high into the sky. It was as much of a signal fire as they could have possibly mustered. All that we left was for them to hope it was seen.

Sunburst wore the grass skirt he had made from sapling bark strips and banana leaves. His mother dressed herself in a similar fashion. Her top offered no support, and served only to cover her swollen breasts.

Sunburst stood at the edge of the water and watched the ship.

He watched, and waited, and hoped.

The broad profile of the ship narrowed as it turned toward the island.

The oceanography vessel had strayed a good ways off course into the uncharted waters. Suffice to say, the tiny island was very much off the beaten path of the usual shipping lanes. As Sunburst sat beside his mother with the ship's blankets he looked back out over the stern of the ship. At the tiny cay they had called home for almost a year, drifting away behind them. He knew they had beaten some very long odds in being found at all. Fortunate for them. As Stellar's due date was not far off.

The ship doctor looked up the records of the missing zeppelin report. "Mrs. Stellar Flare and... Mr. Sunspot?" he asked, pulling up his father's image on the screen. He really did look just like him. His father had a house, a wife and position at his company waiting for him. All Sunburst had to return home to was a mountain of student loans and a load of uncomfortable questions about his mother's mysterious pregnancy. Problems better left at the bottom of the ocean with his past life.

Stellar Flare looked at her son and waited. He had big shoes to fill.

"Yeah, that's me," Sunburst said, holding her closer. "Me and my wife."