Sunshowers - Part Thirteen
This episode is part of a larger story, Soft Touch. If you haven’t yet, you can go back and read it from the beginning right here. The episode below contains some mature content.
Dawn travels slowly over the forest, drenching it with a glittering blanket of dew.
Aiden is normally the first one awake, but he quite literally spent all of his energy yesterday, so this morning it’s me and Noah. I can hear him shifting around in the shadowy quiet on the far side of Ralph, still half asleep. Ralph is completely knocked out, not moving at all.
So I end up alone with the forest for a little bit. A nice feeling, even if I’m keeping a watchful eye out for the Witch.
The dawn air is fresh and chilly, stinging my lungs as it floods my chest. The cool breeze brings down soft showers of petals and leaves whenever a gust sweeps through the canopy. Everything is almost startlingly green, beautifully vivid after all the rain. I take my time walking through it all, breathing slowly and deeply.
By the time I get back to camp from rinsing my face off at the creek, Noah has drowsily dragged himself out of the tent and fallen back asleep in the hammock. Aiden is sitting by the campfire, stirring up the flames without the help of magic.
He looks more or less restored after a night of deep sleep. His warm blue eyes are bright and clear, if not quite awake yet. He gives me a sweet, nuzzling little kiss when I sit down beside him, enough to take my breath away.
All of us are still sleepy, so no words go around before Aiden hauls Noah out of the hammock and drags him down to the creek. They leave me to feed the fire some more.
I’ve got it crackling brightly by the time they come back, so Aiden sets about making us some coffee as Noah reemerges from the tent in fresh clothes, squeezing out his long, damp hair.
“Anyone else get some updates from home last night, while we were close enough to the hotel to have reception?” he yawns, dropping to sit by the fire. “I got a picture of Niki wearing Raj’s sunglasses, so I win automatically.”
“I got a text from Kent,” I answer, accepting a mug of coffee from Aiden. “He said that Ellen dumped out one of Gabby’s jewelry boxes so she could fill it up with some lizard eggs she found in the backyard. Used a pair of Gabby’s tights to make padding for them, too. Kent is - probably handling that totally calmly, not freaking out at all.”
Aiden lets out a deep chuckle, and Noah lets out a snort of laughter into his coffee.
“You’re probably the one responsible, Keane,” he informs me. “Getting her all wild about science.”
“No, what? It's not my fault! We’re not even talking about lizards, we’re working on the hadal zone this week!”
“Cool, yeah, the hadal zone.” Noah hesitates for a moment, then adds - “I know what that is, but, um - tell Aiden.”
“It’s the deepest zone of the ocean. Deep deep. There’s no sunlight left at about six hundred feet down. The hadal zone begins at twenty-thousand feet down.”
“Oh.” Noah shrugs his shoulders, losing interest. He picks up Ralph’s knife and carefully begins to clean the dried mud off of it, using the shirt he wore yesterday. “Pretty sure there’s nothing going on all the way down there, dude. Except maybe dinosaur sharks, but I bet them’s rare.”
“Okay, no, see - that’s exactly the kind of misconception I’d like Ellen and Emmett to not have. That if humans aren’t paying attention to it or can’t reach it, it's not important. The sunlit part of the ocean only takes up five percent of its entire volume, alright? There’s plenty of room for lots of other stuff to be going on.”
“Five percent?” Aiden sputters, looking up at me with startled eyes. “Jesus. Fuck. I forget how big the ocean is.”
“Ugh, Jamie-” Noah pauses in cleaning the knife, screwing up his face. “Don’t tell me science stuff that makes my head hurt first thing in the morning.”
“You’re not far off with the prehistoric creatures thing, though,” I yawn, stretching my sore arms up over my head. “Those are down there, for sure.”
Noah opens his eyes very wide. Aiden breathes out a huff of laughter when he sees his expression.
“Like my head isn’t aching enough, trying to keep up with everything going on,” Noah groans. He drops his gaze to the snow leopard in the crook of his elbow, dazed all over again. “I’m still trying to process Aiden making my cat jump off my arm. Can you make it so I can do that whenever I want, Aiden?”
“No,” he says firmly.
“Okay, then feel free to give me some other dope power. How about Divine Reflection?”
“That’s not how it works, Noosh, I can’t just give you powers from Record of Ragnarok.” Aiden breathes out a fond laugh, catches a handful of Noah’s hair, and gives it a tug. “Besides, I know you’d only use that shit to get into more trouble.”
“Alright, fine,” Noah says, grinning a little as he pushes Aiden’s hand away. “Can’t really complain about anything, after what you did for us yesterday. Holy shit, by the way, Aiden. Sick, dude! What the fuck!”
“Thanks, man,” Aiden says warmly, pleased and surprised.
“Wonder how today is gonna go,” Noah murmurs thoughtfully. “Ralph said I can’t smash in any more cop faces on this trip, so that’s off the table-”
He breaks off sharply as Aiden suddenly stands up and tilts his head to the side, listening to something. I get to my feet so fast I nearly spill my coffee, because I heard that, too. There was definitely a rustling sound in the brush at the edge of our campsite. Like someone or something was moving around.
Noah leaps upright, too, twirling Ralph’s knife around to sit neatly in his hand. He and I draw closer to Aiden, who cautiously approaches the bush we just saw move.
A ripple of frosty blue fire moves through his eyes. His hand tenses up, ready to call on his magic if necessary. He peers past the bushes at a cluster of trees growing up the slope of the hill. It’s the only nearby place where someone could hide.
“We know you’re there,” Aiden calls warningly, the tone of his deep voice suggesting he’s not playing any games. “So you may as well just come out.”
A brief silence passes. The bushes rustle again, snapping everyone’s attention back to them. The visitor to our camp timidly scooches out from hiding, then pauses nervously in front of us.
Aiden, Noah, and I stare down incredulously at the saucepan. It stays where it is, taking only a tiny little forward hop out into the sunlight.
Noah steals an astounded, sidelong glance at Aiden. “Is that the-?”
“Yes,” Aiden says, looking dazed. “It found us, I guess.”
“What do we do?” Noah whispers.
“Hello, you!” I call tentatively, crouching down to address the saucepan. “You caused quite a bit of destruction yesterday, didn’t you?”
The saucepan somehow manages to look slightly ashamed of itself.
“It’s alright, we’re not mad,” I say gently, wary of sending it retreating back into the forest. “We’ve been looking all over for you, actually! Will you come here, please?”
The saucepan starts forward, then hesitates fretfully.
“We won’t bring you back to the hotel,” I add. “We promise.”
The saucepan cautiously hops closer, shyly venturing out into our camp. It heads straight for Aiden, stops right in front of him. He reaches down, palms open, and the saucepan hops right up into his hands.
“Wow, that was way easier than expected,” Noah observes, as Aiden straightens up with the saucepan nestled in his arms. “Saucepan recovered. Turn it back to normal, Aiden.”
Aiden hesitates, looking down at the saucepan. It just twisted itself around in his arms, much like Luna does when one of us is holding her and she wants to see where we’re going. The saucepan seems quite comfortable where it is, trustingly settled into Aiden’s grasp.
“I - I kind of feel bad now,” Aiden says, wincing at himself. “Guess it won’t know what happened, and it won’t hurt it or anything, but… I don’t know, I just feel bad!”
I lean down towards the saucepan, fixing it with a very serious look. “Listen, you won’t run off again if we let you hang out, will you?”
The saucepan presses itself insistently into Aiden’s hands.
“Alright, then…” Aiden sighs deeply, then sets it back down on the grass. “You can stick around for now, while we figure out what to do with you.”
The saucepan enthusiastically hops along after us as we return to the campfire. Noah stares at it wonderingly, a startled grin turning up his lips, then looks over at me.
“You’re just rolling with this, huh, Jamie? You’re that adjusted to having weird magic shit happen in your life?”
“You get used to it,” I laugh helplessly, sitting down by the fire again. “Sort of. A little. Less than that, actually. No, you don’t get used to it at all. But you get better at just rolling with things when they happen. That’s something you’re already pretty good at, Noah, so. You’re doing fine.”
“What are we gonna do with it, though?” Noah asks, as the saucepan comes to a halt near our campfire.
“One thing at a time,” Aiden sighs, going back to chopping up ingredients for the skillet he’s making. “Breakfast first. Where’s the camping pan I used for the bacon yesterday, Noosh?”
“It’s… look, I tried to clean it off, dude, but I don’t think…”
Aiden follows Noah’s pointing finger to the pan, which is so blackened with burnt debris that it’s blending in with the boulder it’s sitting on.
“Jesus Christ, Noosh!” Aiden sputters. “This thing is ruined, what did you even do?”
“Cooked dinner,” Noah explains, wincing guiltily. “Sorry, promise I won’t try that again-”
He cuts himself off as the saucepan hops forward eagerly to wait at Aiden’s feet. We all stare at it in confusion, and then, as one, look at the chopped-up peppers in Aiden’s hands. The saucepan leans upwards expectantly.
“Guess…” Aiden says uncertainly.
He drops the peppers into the saucepan, along with some butter from the cooler backpack. The saucepan catches it all, then hops lightly up to sit itself on the little steel cooking grill over our campfire.
“Oh-!” I begin, my eyes widening with alarm.
But it’s a saucepan, so it doesn’t mind the fire brushing directly against it. Its contents sizzle with what sounds like a happy sigh as Aiden adds some chopped-up garlic and flaky salt. It settles itself down more comfortably over the fire, looking very contented and peaceful, starting to give off delicious-smelling steam.
“Okay, guess this is happening,” Aiden mutters, turning away to rummage around in the cooler bag again.
“This has been a weird weekend,” Noah says dazedly.
This draws a laugh from me and Aiden. We both start to answer at once, then stop as Ralph crawls out of the tent, drawn out by the noise.
He’s kind of in a hurry, like he was afraid of missing something. He stops on his knees just outside of the tent, his eyes only half-open, his blonde hair in tousled disorder.
“Hey, Ralph!” I call brightly, lifting my hand in a wave, then pointing at the fire. “Good news! We found the saucepan!”
Ralph’s confused, barely awake eyes linger on my face, then flit to the saucepan. He watches blankly as it gives itself a shake to stir around its steaming contents, scooching closer to Aiden so it can accept the potatoes he’s adding to it.
Ralph rubs his eyes, blinks hard a few times, then looks at the saucepan again.
“This seems…” he mumbles. “I don’t think I’m all the way awake yet.”
“Also there are dinosaurs at the bottom of the ocean,” Noah adds, in a very matter-of-fact voice. “Jamie said so, which means it’s science.”
Ralph looks at me in bewilderment, and I toss my hands up in disbelief. “That’s not even what I - oh, I’m glad you’re not in my class, Noah!”
“Go rinse off in the creek,” Aiden tells Ralph, fighting back a laugh. “You’ll be awake after that.”
Ralph tiredly staggers up onto his feet, shaking his head. “In a minute… need some coffee first…”
Aiden stops, looking at him more closely. “Just sleep for a few more minutes, dude.”
“S’okay, I’m already here.”
Noah stops finger-combing his damp hair and hastily gets up as Ralph stumbles forward with his eyes still closed. He catches Ralph’s arm and pushes him into the hammock.
“Sleep there, then. What do you think, that we’re gonna leave without you?”
“No,” Ralph murmurs, turning over onto his side in the hammock. “Just heard you guys out here, and - was - wondering what you were all talking about.”
“Just about how the saucepan is alive, and so are the ocean dinosaurs,” Noah explains. “That’s all.”
“That’s all,” Ralph repeats, around a helpless laugh.
He rubs his eyes, which are starting to open up some more as he breathes in the chilly dawn air. When he’s this tired they’re more the color of aloe, or dark sea glass.
He gazes out at the skyline for a little while as the rest of us resume the conversation. I look over at him curiously when he suddenly reaches for his backpack, which Noah dragged out of the tent this morning so he’d have enough light to find his clothes.
Ralph feels around in the backpack, and draws out his camera. He snaps a picture of the glittering dawn forest and the peachy sky, then rolls over to take a picture of our campsite, and the steaming plates of breakfast food Aiden is starting to set up.
He carefully slips the camera back into his backpack, then closes his eyes and listens to the conversation with a faint, tired smile on his face.
I rejoin the conversation, digging into my breakfast. After a little while Ralph reaches down to poke my shoulder.
“Hey - did I say anything stupid last night? Given you took full advantage of me being too tired to shut up. As usual.”
“Can you blame me, dude?” I ask brightly, leaning back to speak to him. “We always have such nice talks when you’re that tired!”
Ralph grimaces deeply. “Oh, god.”
“It was great, honestly! There was even some talk about how seductive I am.” I pause when Ralph opens his eyes and raises a skeptical eyebrow at me. I give my shoulders a concessionary shrug, handing him up a cup of coffee. “Okay, it wasn’t exactly that, but close enough.”
“I doubt it.” Ralph sits up in the hammock to take a sip from the steaming mug in his hands. He hesitates, watching the saucepan cozy up on the flames, then shakes his head. “Although I’d believe anything, after what’s been thrown at me this weekend. Or - almost anything. Anything besides what you just said, pretty much.”
I breathe out a little laugh as Ralph takes a long, grateful sip of his coffee. “Okay, fair enough. How are you feeling? Did you get some energy back?”
“Think so,” Ralph murmurs, sleepily rubbing his eyes. “Problem might be that I’m always tired anyways-”
Ralph breaks off with a shuddering gasp as Aiden stops behind the hammock and touches a glowing golden hand to his shoulder. His grey-green eyes fly open, blinking hard and fast, wide awake.
“Holy shit,” he stammers, breathing hard. “What’d you just do to me, Aiden?”
“Oops - was that too much?” Aiden asks in alarm, as Ralph scrambles out of the hammock and onto his feet. “I’m sorry, I was just trying to give you back some of what you gave me yesterday!”
“Wh-? Seriously?” Ralph is suddenly humming with energy, rocking up and down on the heels of his hiking boots. “You should save your energy, man, we need it against the Witch!”
“Having you at full capacity is all part of that,” Aiden says firmly, watching with growing amusement as Ralph gives himself a shake, like he’s trying to get some of that energy out of himself. “We’re useless without you making the plans, dude.”
Ralph strides in a tight circle around the fireplace, shaking out his fingers, talking very fast.
“Shit, though, Aiden, that was too much, I don’t even know what to do! My goddamn heart is going too fast. Feels like when I was a little kid, like - when the pretty girl who lived across the street told me I could come over if I wanted and meet her pet hamsters.”
“Aw!” I laugh, caught completely by surprise.
So is Aiden, based on the startled grin he flashes me, and Noah is no exception.
“Did you go see the hamsters, dude?” he asks, grinning widely up at Ralph.
“No, man, of course I fucking didn’t!” Ralph snaps heatedly, pacing another lap around the campfire. “She was pretty, like I said, and she had a nose piercing, which at the time made her seem insanely cool and grown-up to me - look, don’t you think I tried? I couldn’t just go over there, what was I supposed to say?”
“Oh, this is amazing,” I whisper, smothering another laugh behind my hands.
“I can’t stop talking, I’ve gotta do something!” Ralph lets out an agonized sound, cringing with his whole face. “Is everything conspiring to just not let me shut the fuck up on this trip? Take some of your energy back, Aiden!”
He pleadingly holds out a hand to Aiden, who lets out a deep rumble of laughter, folding his powerful arms over his chest.
“And put a stop to this? No way, man. Tell us more about the hamster girl.”
“Come the f- what am I supposed to do with this much energy?” Ralph takes a tight handful of his hair. “What sort of grown person even has this kind of-?”
He breaks off, his eyes landing on Noah, who’s busy taking a sip from his coffee.
Noah drops the coffee mug with a startled sputter as Ralph seizes him from behind and wrenches him backwards.
“Oh, yes, let’s go!” he laughs, breaking into a dimpled grin, twisting around to try and get Ralph in a headlock.
I rush to get out of the way as they go wrestling violently past me. Aiden uses his foot to nudge them so that they’re rolling away from the campfire, then turns around to face me.
“How are you doing?” he asks softly, giving my face a gentle caress as his brothers try to kick each other on the ground behind him. “Have everything you need?”
“Mhm. I did want to go further down the creek and see if there was anywhere deep enough to take a real bath, instead of just a rinse-off. But I know when I’m asking for too much.”
Aiden pauses, considering. He glances up at the sky to get the time instead of pulling his phone out of his pocket.
It’s such a simple, subtle little thing he does, so it’s strange how it makes my heart suddenly ache with how much I love him.
I’m used to this kind of experience. Any little thing about Aiden might ambush me without warning, at any time. I’ve had it happen just because of the way he bends his knees in front of the mirror he’s too tall for, so he can see himself while he’s fixing his hair. I sat on the bed watching him do that, like he does every morning, and suddenly my heart felt like it was trying not to explode.
“You know, we’re up pretty early,” he points out, dropping his gaze back to my face. “Ralph and Noah still have to eat, and clearly they’re - busy, at the moment. If you want to go down to the creek it’s probably fine. But I’m coming with you.”
I’m happy with that arrangement, so Aiden instructs the saucepan to get off of the fire if anything starts to burn, then finds one of the microfiber towels from our backpacks. He folds an arm around my shoulders as we set off down the hill, leaving Ralph and Noah cursing and shouting at each other at camp.
The forest is still glittering from the dewfall, and with a very slight, fine drizzle falling softly through the sunshine. The tree boughs rise up in towering layers high over our heads, some high enough to scrape the underbellies of the clouds and turn them into slow-moving mist.
The creek is bright and clear, but shallow. I was a little nervous at the idea of walking further along it on my own, but my worries evaporate now that Aiden is here with me. Soon enough we find a place where the creek grows wider and deeper. The water sits cold and clear over a bed of pebbles deep down below, the glassy surface obscured now and then by droplets of rain.
Aiden sits down on the mossy stone bank of the creek. Smiling to himself, listening to me chatter away as I pull off my flannel and my shirt. I set them aside, then pause mid-sentence when my eyes land on something in a thick clump of bushes nearby.
“Oh, look!” I cross to the bushes and drop down onto my knees, then bend forward to carefully reach into the leaves. “Man, I really should have brought my foraging bag.”
I pull a few wild blackberries out, then let out a happy sigh when I find that they’re fresh and plump and cold. I pop one into my mouth, then start plucking a few more, accepting that this is going to stain my fingers purple.
“Aiden, come help me. We should bring some of these back to camp.”
“Nah,” comes his deep voice, from behind me. “I’m busy. Taking in the view.”
I look over my shoulder at him in surprise and confusion, then let out a startled laugh. His blue gaze is lingering on me in a way that forcefully reminds me I’m down to only my jeans and my hiking boots.
I sit back on my ankles, blushing, holding a handful of the berries, then quickly get to my feet and come back over to him.
“Here, try one,” I tell him, not sure what to say, trying to move right past that. “They’re so good.”
I hold one out, expecting him to take it, but he opens his mouth expectantly instead. I bite my lip, then gently put it between his.
I’m trembling a little inside. He’s so unbelievably hot that it still makes me unbearably nervous and shy when he does stuff like that. The feathered sunshine is slowly dancing over him, glowing on his lush chestnut hair, sliding softly over his velvet skin. His striking blue eyes are gazing up into mine as he swallows the blackberry. My palms are itching to run over the rich stubble on his face, darker and thicker now after a few days without a shave.
Before I know what I’m doing, the remaining blackberries have slipped out of my fingers, and I’m holding Aiden’s face in my hands. I kiss him deeply, lingering for a long time, tasting the sticky sweetness of the fruit juice on his lips.
The summer air has grown warmer, and a very slow breeze moves against us, carrying the whistling of distant birds and the quiet, steady rush of the creek. The sounds dissolve when they reach me, lost as I am in the unrivaled experience of kissing Aiden.
His warmth, the summer warmth, and the warmth of the sunlight against my back make me want to melt down into his powerful arms. I only barely manage to resist.
Aiden doesn’t say anything when I gently break it off and draw back. His hands are holding tight to the moss at his sides, like he needs it to keep himself upright. I quickly turn away and start undoing my jeans, trying to get a hold of myself.
“This is gonna be cold,” I groan, looking at the rain-dotted creek.
“Mmm… yeah, but it’s a worthwhile tradeoff to take a bath here,” Aiden answers unsteadily, after a moment or two. “For a while when I was traveling around I had to rely on those pay-to-use showers they’ve got at truck stops. Pristine forest creek is the better option, trust me.”
“Oh, I don’t know.” I flash him a devious smirk over my shoulder, pulling off my jeans. “The first option sounds like a great way to meet people.”
Aiden lets out a sharp, startled laugh, then tries to pull an exasperated face at me. “It was one person to a shower, Little Demon.”
“With no exceptions? But what if there’s a cute, lonesome trucker hanging around?”
“I actually did split a shower with a trucker once.”
I look sharply over at Aiden, my eyes opening very wide. “Seriously?”
“I mean - it wasn’t like that,” Aiden says, suppressing a laugh. “It was more about neither of us wanting to pay the full price for the shower. We figured we could split the seven minutes between us, and split the cost. I just waited outside while he took his three and a half minutes.”
Aiden loses the battle against his laughter when he sees how clearly put out I am.
“Damn, Keane. I’m sorry I didn’t make a pass at him. Didn’t realize at the time you’d be so disappointed in me when you heard about it.”
“It sounded like it was shaping up to be a sexy story, that’s all!”
“Well, don’t worry,” Aiden murmurs, around a huff of warm laughter. “I’m still collecting those. The ones I’m collecting these days are my favorites, anyways.”
I blush a little, then shake my head at him when I see the intent way his eyes are lingering on me. Laughing softly, I let the rest of my clothes fall to the pile, then step out into the creek.
It’s really cold, and I start shivering as I wade naked out towards the deeper water. My instinct is to rush in and dunk myself immediately, but golden bars of sunshine are falling through the trees, lighting up the fluttering rain. The rich warmth of it on my skin counteracts the cold a little bit. I pause for a moment to absorb it, standing in the water up to my thighs.
Strange how close the sunlight feels to the touch of Aiden’s hands, which glow with their own golden warmth.
I have my back to him, and it’s only with great difficulty that I resist stealing a look at him. He’s so quiet back there. I nervously trail my blackberry-stained fingertips on the surface of the water, shivering as cool little raindrops fleck against me.
“I’m still thinking about what you did last night,” I tell Aiden, trailing some water up my arms to help my body adjust to the cold. “It seems like using your magic comes so much more naturally to you, these days.”
No answer. I wait for a moment, then add - “God, this water is cold. This may end up being a quick rinse-off after all.”
Silence from behind me, and only the sounds of the forest from around me.
“Are you even paying attention to me?” I ask, pouting down at the water.
Aiden breaks his silence with a soft, purring huff of laughter.
“I’m all attention,” comes his deep, infinitely rich voice. “Don’t you worry about that, baby.”
I blush a violent shade of crimson, then finally steal a glance at Aiden over my shoulder. He’s still sitting on the bank of the creek. His elbows are loosely resting on his knees, all casual. But he’s holding his own wrist very tightly. One silky strand of chestnut has escaped his snapback and tumbled forward to kiss his dark eyebrow, and the light, fluttering rain is flecking against his face, but he doesn’t seem to notice.
I can tell even from here that he’s pouring off Heliomancer heat. The air is shimmering around him, or maybe that’s my vision blurring out everything besides him.
His eyes are following my every movement, slowly traveling up and down my bare, shivering body. I can see the intoxicated restlessness in them, playing over them. His gaze is smoking and smoldering, lit from within with flames of desire.
His eyes meet mine, and my heart briefly stops. God, that intense, molten blue stare. He could make a blank wall feel shy and self-conscious and exposed with that stare. I can practically feel it blazing a white-hot trail up my body.
“I - I meant were you listening to me?” I manage, with enormous difficulty.
Aiden sighs blissfully. “Oh, yeah. You sound beautiful.”
“No, to what I was saying.”
“What’d you say?”
“I f-forget, it was - oh, that I’m cold. Water’s freezing, so I might cut this short.”
Aiden thinks about that for a moment, then gets up and pulls off his snapback. I freeze where I am, watching with rapt eyes as he quickly loses his clothes.
“Then I guess I’m taking a bath, too. Probably for the best, anyways. You got my beard all sticky.” He immediately points a finger at me when he sees me grin and arch an eyebrow. “Don’t you say a word, you know damn well I was talking about the berries.”
I let out a little laugh, then watch shyly as he strides out into the water to join me. The cold gives him no problems, of course. Heat is streaming off of him, and everywhere the water touches his bare bronze skin it gives off steam.
His eyes reflect the rainy sunlight beautifully, but my eyes are focused much lower down than that. His intentions are obvious well before he catches me by my waist and pulls me down into the deeper water, so that my legs automatically fold around his hips. His hands push slowly up my back, pressing me against his chest, and something else presses between my parted thighs.
I bite back a gasp, wrapping my arms around his neck. I’m so warm in his arms that the cold of a second ago feels like a distant memory. I kiss his throat, tasting the rain off of it, breathing in the smell of his skin. I drag my tongue over his Adam’s apple, then catch my breath sharply as he takes a tight handful of my hair, locks one arm around my waist, and teasingly, hungrily rubs our bodies together.
I draw back to look at him, panting and hazy-eyed. His cheeks are dark with a deep blush, the rainy sunlight shining on the copper streaks in his hair, turning them into rivers of gold. There’s nothing around us to start floating, but he must be enjoying himself enough that he’s accidentally messing with the gravity. Half of the raindrops just above the creek are hanging suspended in the air, glittering in the sunlight like stardust.
Aiden presses himself against me hopefully, eagerly, forcing a little gasp from my lips.
“Wow, you’re all the way ready to go,” I stammer, then let out a breathless, flustered laugh. “Wait - here? Babe, we’re - we don’t have time!”
Aiden drags the pad of his thumb across my lips, his gaze dropping to my mouth. “Oh, I think we have time for something.”
“Ralph and Noah-”
“Are still wrestling. Trust me.”
“Okay, and like - the Witch? Any of our other various opponents in this thing?”
Aiden is carrying me through the water, back to the mossy bank of the creek, where he pushes me halfway out and lays me out on my back. “I don’t sense anyone nearby.”
“Aren’t the others gonna notice that we’ve been gone for a long t-?”
“Shhh,” Aiden murmurs, climbing over me. “You’re gonna get us caught.”
I let out a disbelieving, adoring laugh, then fall silent and start breathing hard as Aiden leans forward, his dark, soft hair falling down over his forehead. His lips melt against mine, then coax them apart so he can sink his tongue into my mouth. My hand glides down his chest, down his torso, following the line of fine, dark hair until my fingers find what they wanted, and squeeze.
Aiden releases a deep, whimpering moan.
All thoughts of the hunt - all thoughts of everything - scatter from my mind. I draw my Companion Plant in close, and forget about everything else.
~~~~
Noah is lounging in the hammock, letting some music play from his phone. Ralph is listening to something he’s saying, trying not to laugh, and aiming his camera off into the trees.
They both look up in surprise as Aiden and I come hurriedly staggering back into camp.
“Where have you guys been?” Noah asks, lowering his coffee.
Aiden and I are both damp-haired, red-cheeked, and a little out of breath.
“Jamie wanted to take a bath,” Aiden explains briefly, hanging the towel up to dry by the saucepan, who appears to be dozing in the shade. “Sorry, we didn’t mean to be gone for so long.”
“It was kind of a while,” Noah says, faintly confused. “Everything alright?”
Ralph is glancing and forth between me and Aiden, half-smirking, half-exasperated.
“C’mon, boys,” he groans, setting his camera aside. “We can’t have half the team running off to hook up with each other in the middle of the mission.”
“I don’t remember seeing that in the rules!” I answer, a flustered blush spreading across my face as Noah lets out a startled snicker of laughter.
“Pretty sure it goes against every principle of SERE training, at the very least,” Ralph answers wearily.
“Were you guys doing something important while we were gone?” Aiden asks, pointedly running his eyes over the dirt and grass clinging to Ralph and Noah, clearly left over from a lengthy and lively brawl.
“No, suppose not,” Ralph admits, with a concessionary shrug. “But it feels like we should be doing something right now. We’re all just what, hanging out, having a good time? Like this is a regular camping trip?”
“Well, what’s wrong with that?” Noah asks, stretching out his legs in the hammock. “Maybe we needed it. Weren’t you guys tired?”
He’s actually got a point. We barely limped back into camp last night, but after this morning we’re all looking better. Bright-faced and clear-eyed again, way more awake and alert than any of us were before.
Ralph looks around at us, then gives his shoulders another slight shrug.
“Yeah, guess that’s true…” He furrows his eyebrows and glances off to the side, as if making a mental note of that for later. “Funny, I don’t remember The Art of War saying anything about making sure to leave some time for chillin’ with your boys.”
“Then we’ll just have to update it,” Noah says brightly. “Isn’t it pretty old, anyways?”
Ralph looks at Noah, then presses his fingertips to his forehead, barely suppressing a fond laugh. “It - yeah, it’s old.”
“Very old,” our historian adds helpfully, from where she’s suddenly standing at my side.
“Kasey!” I finish pulling on my clean flannel, beaming at her in relief, and throw my arms open wide to give her a ghost hug. “You’re back!”
“I didn’t fully crash!” she says proudly, then lets her gaze travel over the rest of us, looking just as relieved as I am. “Thank god you guys are all okay! I left at such a scary moment last night, but I knew one more second out of town was gonna be the difference. But all those dogs! Are you-?”
“We’re fine,” I promise, as Aiden slips on the ghost glasses and gives her a wave. “It was wild, though. I’ll tell you on the way to the hunt.”
“Sweet.” Kasey glances around, taking in the music, the glowing summer day, the leftover breakfast Aiden is cleaning up, and Noah in his hammock. “Wow, things are chill around here. Are we still hunting? Oh, Jamie - tell Ralph that I thought of a name for the stat boost our team gets when Aiden wants to impress you and protect you. Call it the Sacred Band of Thebes effect. SBT for short.”
I have no idea what that means, but it must have something to do with warfare history, because it gets a snort of laughter from Ralph once I repeat it. Kasey beams triumphantly, delighted to have someone get one of her history jokes.
“Alright, sounds like Kasey’s here, which means we’ve got the team assembled.” Ralph gets to his feet, stretching his arms over his head. “Time to get down to the hotel and dispel the Witch. I’m sure it’ll all go - very smoothly.”
“Wait, is that the saucepan?” Kasey sputters, as it stirs drowsily on the grass.
“We agreed it can hang around so long as it behaves,” I explain, then quickly wave a hand at the saucepan as it starts to hop towards me. “You stay here, please, little pan! Unless you feel like coming with us back to the hotel?”
I’m not sure how much the saucepan can understand, but at the mention of the hotel it settles itself comfortably back onto the grass, staying right where it is.
“Keep an eye on our camp, then,” I tell it, then turn back to Kasey, who’s staring at it in bewilderment. “Again, I’ll explain on the way.”
“Or we could hang out here a little longer?” Noah suggests, looking out at the beautiful skyline, our peaceful, sunlit camp. “I’m of the opinion we should smoke a joint before we go, personally.”
This turns out to be an opinion not shared by Ralph, so instead we get busy organizing the camp, getting ready to go.
“Last full day in the forest,” Ralph murmurs, when we set out a few minutes later. “The plan is to avoid Hanely and Grimm as much as possible. Also try to avoid Wendy, which means try to avoid any damage coming to the hotel. Keep the hunters safe and out of the way, if there are any left who weren’t spooked into quitting by what happened with the dogs. Most importantly, we try to get the Witch. No running, today. If we see her, it’s time for Aiden to face her.”
I glance searchingly at Aiden, but he looks calm, his blue eyes steady and focused.
“Lastly, we try to keep Nolan away from the action,” Ralph finishes. “That’s not me saying anything bad about Nolan. It’s just that we all know our guy would much rather not be in it. Anyways, I think that’s everything, and now that I’ve laid it all out I’m sure it’s all going to go as wrong as conceivably possible. But let’s all just try to stick to the plan, yes?”
“Yes,” we all chorus, falling into step at his back.
“Oh, and no one is allowed to break Hanely’s nose,” Ralph adds, meaningfully catching Noah’s eye. “I don’t want to hear any more arguments about how that way he and Grimm would ‘match’. That’s not a good enough reason. One could argue that it’s not even a reason at all.”
“C’mon, man,” Noah says pleadingly. “Would I be allowed to get away with it if - what are their names, again? Handjob and Grimmjob?”
“Hand-?” Ralph begins, then spins around to face Noah, his grey-green eyes opening very wide, an uncontrollable gasp of laughter escaping from his mouth.
Aiden, Kasey, and I fall apart at the same time. Noah looks around with a surprised, puzzled smile as we all burst out laughing.
“Was that not it?” he asks, a little confused. “It sounded right in my head. Maybe that was just because it rhymed, though.”
“Holy shit, Noosh,” Aiden wheezes, as Kasey hides her face against my shoulder, shaking with silent giggles. “Your brain is broken in such unique, specific ways.”
“Ain’t that true of all of us, bro?”
“Mmm - yeah, actually, I guess so.”
“Okay,” Ralph groans, pulling himself back together with a huge force of effort. “Come on, squad. No time to dwell on our respective brain problems. We’ve got a witch to catch.”
I don’t know if it’s the renewed energy of the group, or the unwittingly cool way Ralph said that, or just that we all still have some laughter in us after what Noah said, but this last statement draws an enthusiastic burst of noise from the team. We all speed up, walking taller, spreading out behind Ralph.
Restored, rallied, and ready to go, Team Ghost Office sets off to rejoin the hunt.
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