A/N - Hey guys, so...it's been a while hasn't it!? Please don't hold that against me!

So, this is something completely new for me, recently I've been talking to the amazing RosesAndSkulls (if you haven't read any of her stuff go do that now, I'll wait...*waits*) and we've sort of been playing around with this idea together.

I don't really know how it happened but our writing styles really clicked and we've created something that to be honest, we're quite proud of. Hopefully you like reading it as much as we've enjoyed writing it together.


Naomi:

If twelve hours stuck on a plane wasn't enough I was now facing a two hour coach trip into the middle of fucking nowhere. Come on a family holiday, they said, it'll be fun, they said. Liars, I only agreed to come to shut my mother up and she went and booked it for the last two weeks of the summer holidays. Fucking Kieran, I know he's a teacher and all but I've ended up missing Reading festival to sit in the middle of a bloody zoo. Fall Out Boy killing it on the main stage or a safari park in the middle of South Africa surrounded by a multitude of poisonous insects that could quite easily kill me... next time I want to shut my mother up I'll use duct tape and some rope.

"Would someone please fucking mute the creature you insisted on bringing into this world before I throw it out of the bloody window?" I snapped annoyed when I just couldn't take the constant screaming and crying anymore.

"Come on now, Naomi, don't speak about your baby brother like that. He's only four." My mum told me as she continued to try and calm down the little devil.

I was about to tell her how she shouldn't even have brought a four year old on a bloody safari, but I decided to simply try and ignore them altogether instead. I put in my earphones, decided on some Fall Out Boy, now that I had to miss their live show, and turned it up to maximum volume. It still wasn't loud enough to drown out the wailing.

I just glared out of the window, all I could see for miles was the occasional twig like bush and dry grass. The dust kicking up off the wheels of the coach distorted everything so in the end I just gave up and shut my eyes. Maybe I could just sleep for two weeks and wake up on the plane back to England.

I'm not really a holiday person. My complexion just can't handle sunshine and seeing as I was sweating my tits off in an air conditioned bus I wasn't holding out much hope for actually going outside, at all. I suppose the only saving grace was the promise of my own room and the shit tonne of books I downloaded on my iPad before leaving home.

I could see the silhouette of the resort rise up on the horizon as if it were springing from the ground and as we approached I started being prodded by the demon child that was my younger brother. Despite numerous conversations assuring them that I was perfectly happy being an only child they had insisted on reproducing... political science teacher plus border line hippie equals fucking mental child. Don't get me wrong, I loved him because he was my brother, but most of the time I wanted to rip my arm off just to have something to throw at him.

The coach stopped and all the excited holidaymakers leapt over one another to be the first off, twats. I stayed put as long as possible before hauling on my backpack and wandering into the foyer. Here goes nothing.

In fairness, the resort was rather lovely. It wasn't too fancy, but definitely not a complete dump either. That didn't make up for all the goddamn fucking tourists roaming around the place though. Seriously, had my mum and Kieran deliberately typed "family crowded safari resort, South Africa" in the search field?

It took us fucking ages just to get the bloody key for the, luckily, private villa we had reserved. While we were standing in line kids were running around me playing bloody tag, I was seconds away from a full on meltdown.

"Mum," I said through gritted teeth as one of the kids grabbed hold of my leg to hide from another child behind me, "If you don't get this thing off me right now, I swear to God I can't be held responsible for the amount of money you have to spend on getting me out of jail for beating up a minor."

My mum turned around then and sighed heavily before handing over the demon child that had been resting on her hip to Kieran.

"Don't be ridiculous, Naomi." She said, as she pulled the nuisance off my leg, gave it a hug and sent it on its way, "You're 21 years old. I have no such responsibility for you anymore."

"Exactly. I'm 21, mum! If you can't be arsed to get me out of jail then why do you feel the need to torture me by dragging me out in the middle of fucking nowhere with my former politics teacher and your demon offspring? I could've just stayed at home, alone."

I knew I was making a scene, but I didn't care. This was not how I'd planned on spending my last few weeks of summer vacation and I was going to make bloody sure they knew it.

"Right, dear, and what would we have come home to then? The last time we let you stay home alone for more than a few days you nearly trashed the place."

Okay so that might not have been a complete lie. It had been an absolute rager party that people weren't likely to forget for at least a decade. Still, after being grounded for just as long I'd learned my lesson. I huffed audibly and snatched my key off of Kieran who was wrestling to try and keep Lorcan from running off and getting eaten by a wild animal... fucking shame that would be.

The Villa was nice, as much as it pained me to admit it. It was really spacious and I got the massive double bedroom on the ground floor because the other bedrooms were upstairs and they wanted to keep the brat close to them. I threw my bag down on the bed, changed out of the stodgy clothes I was wearing on the plane, and grabbed a shower in the en suite. Maybe this holiday wasn't going to be so bad, as long as I could stay locked in my room away from any small children, the two nutjobs I called my parents and the wildlife. If I played my cards right I would only have to leave the Villa in search of food and alcohol. Bonus.

As I emerged from the bathroom draped in a towel the silence was deafening. With the twelve hour flight and time difference it was early afternoon and I guessed the little shit was having his nap so I had at least an hours peace.

I popped on my denim shorts and white vest top and opened the drapes. The view was alright, a lot more greenery than I had seen on the coach and the odd multi-coloured bird perched in the trees. I grabbed my iPad and made myself comfortable on the bed. I started reading but pretty soon the weight of the journey took its toll and I drifted off into a blissful sleep.


"Naomi, darling, come on, get your lazy arse out here and let's have a look round." Fuck sake, Lorcan sleeps and they would rearrange anything to make sure he wasn't disturbed. I took the opportunity to have a bit of shut eye and we just had to do something else.

"I don't give a shit mum, I'm fine here..." I heard footsteps and then my door creaked open, brilliant.

"I feel like we've been very patient with you so far, Naomi. I make exceptions for you because I get that it must be difficult missing your friends and that mud covered field you call a festival to be here, surrounded by the best Mother Nature has to offer, in glorious sunshine on a luxury holiday that I bloody paid for...but you're pushing it." She stood at the bottom of my bed with her arms crossed, glaring at me as if I was the most terrible person on the planet. This was going to go well.

"I never fucking asked you to do any of this for me!" I yelled frustrated as I got up from the bed, "you could've used all that money on dear little Lorcan for all I bloody care!"

We were standing across from each other, our hands on our hips, glaring. If I hadn't been so riled up I might've laughed.

"Oh so that's what this is about then? Lorcan?" She asked just as angrily, her voice raised as well, "Really, Naomi, don't you think that's a bit childish, even for you?"

"This isn't about the little brat!" I yelled, "Fucking hell, this is about you always trying to control my life! I'm not a child anymore!"

"Well you're bloody hell acting like one!"

I was just about to ready another counter assault when Kieran interrupted, "everything alright in 'ere, girls? You're waking up the little fellow."

As if we were in some horrible teen drama movie like Freaky Friday, we both turned around on Kieran and yelled simultaneously, "Stay out of this!"

Kieran looked quite taken aback from the wrath of two Campbell girls, but instead of scrambling out of there while he still could, he opted on the less clever option of opening his mouth again, "Now there girlies, there's no need for that, is there? Hakuna Matata and all that"

"What?" I asked incredulously and turned to my mum again, "is he fucking joking?"

Of course the little demon child decided to wake up screaming at that exact moment.

"Unbelievable." I exclaimed as I grabbed my bag, moved past Kieran and made my way towards the door.

"Where do you think you're going, young lady?" My mum called behind me.

"Anywhere but here!" I yelled as I slammed the door shut.

The wave of heat hit me, it was like an oven after the air conditioned Villa but there was no way in hell I was going back there. I mean seriously, how fucking dare they? I'm not ungrateful but I didn't ask them to drag me six thousand miles away from home, the least they could do is just leave me the fuck alone. Fuck's sake, sometimes I wish they would just get on and play happy family without me.

My inner monologue continued to rage as I practically ran through the resort. Considering we were supposed to be surrounded by wild animals there didn't appear to be much protection. It's supposed to be an all round experience but I would have expected an electric fence or something, you know... just in case.

I could feel sweat starting to trickle down the back of my neck as the humidity started to take hold. I stopped dead and unleashed the Campbell fury by kicking a stone, in flip flops... not the best fucking idea I had ever had and pain erupted through my foot. Stumbling, I managed to hobble over to a fallen tree trunk and sit down before I screamed profanities to the heavens. Brilliant fucking day it was turning out to be.

I ran my hands through my hair and swore several times under my breath as I tried to rub the pain away. I caught my breath, wiped the sweat off of my forehead and took my iPad out of my bag. In my anger I had managed to walk far enough away from the resort buildings that I was completely alone, finally. I closed my eyes for a few lost moments and breathed deeply, trying to calm my racing heartbeat. All I could hear was crickets, no screaming children and no bad Irish jokes, just me, myself and I... and a good book. For the first time since getting in the taxi at three am this morning I felt relaxed.

Time crept by, I hadn't put my watch back on after my shower but the sun was getting lower and lower in the sky. I sighed with the realisation that I was going to have to go back to the Villa soon and face the repercussions of the argument with my mum. The silent treatment would be perfect but I had a funny feeling she was going to insist on having a 'chat', which inevitably meant that she was going to talk at me for half an hour whilst I nodded along, pretending to listen.

I was completely lost in my book when I suddenly felt something on my shoulder, sliding down my forearm. I didn't think about it at first, due to the very interesting passage I was reading, but when I slowly turned my head to the right, to see what was bothering me during my alone time, I nearly had a fucking heart attack.

I found myself face to face with a giant arse snake and my very first instinct was to hit it with my iPad. I was up on my feet the second after, screaming like a girl and pointing my iPad defensively at the snake that was now on the ground.

"Fucking fuck! You better fucking stay right there you disgusting creature!" I yelled at it and jumped backwards when the bloody thing had the decency to hiss at me.

"Jesus, what did that poor snake ever do to you?" Said a very husky voice that was coming towards me.

I didn't dare to look away from the snake on the ground that seemed to be advancing on me to see who the voice belonged to, even though my entire body for some reason wanted to. It wasn't until she appeared in my line of vision, actually grabbing hold of the snake and draping it around her that I saw her.

At first I didn't even give the snake that now adorned her shoulders a second thought, I barely saw it, I only saw her. She had a rather petite figure, but what a figure it was. And I thought that in a completely envious way, of course. She had soft, elegant features, the cutest little button nose, extraordinary red hair that stuck to her sweaty forehead and... pretty fucking captivating chocolate brown eyes.

"He's more scared of you than you are of him, you know." She said in that husky voice again, and that's when I realised she was English... And still holding the snake.

"Right," I scoffed disbelieving, "it's not like it was about to fucking strangle me or anything."

"You're English." She stated smiling, not seeming that bothered by the huge snake winding it's way across her shoulders.

"And you're holding a snake... Willingly." I told her slowly, in case she didn't know.

Her laugh made my skin tingle and I felt this weird feeling in my stomach that I hadn't felt before. Sort of like... Fluttering? What the fuck. I fought every fibre in my being to stop the bewildered look I could feel creeping all over my face, I didn't know what the bloody hell I was feeling and I sure as hell didn't want her to know that.

"Yeah, beautiful creatures really aren't they?" She flicked her eyes up to meet my own as she let the slithery creature rest on her arms. I looked at her then, mouth gaping slightly, caught between wondering what the bloody hell this tingling feeling was that threatened to overcome me completely and whether she was indeed a bat shit fucking crazy person that had escaped from somewhere.

"I'm sorry but did you just call that... thing... beautiful?"

I realised that I was still firmly in attack mode and lowered my iPad, I figured at the very least the snake would have to go through her first so I was pretty much safe. She laughed again, it was like liquid pleasure wrapping itself around me. I didn't know what the fuck was going on, everything she did seemed to make me feel like a swooning school girl.

"Yeah, this little guy is the reason there aren't any rats around the resort, the Rufous Beaked snake and just so you know... they hardly ever bite, let alone someone as skillfully trained in the art of modern warfare as you. I don't think it gets much more modern than an iPad."

I could see her trying to hold back a laugh as she walked slowly towards me. I felt my heartbeat quicken and I wasn't entirely sure whether it was because of the way she moved with such allure and composure or that she was bringing that thing closer to me.

"Can you put that down please? I'm fucking terrified of the slithery bastard." I swallowed my heart back down into my chest and focused completely on her, the way she moved, attempting not to notice she was still holding the snake.

"They say the best way to combat your fears..." She stopped, no more than a foot away from me and locked my gaze, "...is to face them."

"I don't even know your name and you're asking me to trust you enough to be this close to something that could quite easily kill me?" I fought the urge to take a step backwards, there was something strange about her, something unnerving, but to be honest seeing her smile again would be worth getting chomped on by Rufus. Giving it a pet name didn't appear to help.

"I'm Emily. I'm a ranger here... it's my job to make sure that all the animals are safe, cared for and I've been known to do the odd game drive too. Trust me, I won't let anything happen to you." She took my hand then, I was too dumbstruck to move away as she rested my skin against scales. I shuddered and then I relaxed slightly. It wasn't slimy in the slightest, it was actually really fucking smooth to be fair. I ran my hand over him, feeling the indent of each scale with the tip of my finger, tracing a pattern with each movement.

"Wow…" was all I could think to say. In five minutes she had gotten me to do something that I never thought I would and she'd made me feel something I hadn't felt before, something I couldn't understand.

"Right, let me put him back where he belongs and I'll walk you back to the resort so you don't get set upon by anymore man-eating creatures. Hate for you to break your iPad…"

"Naomi!" I blurted out as I practically fell over myself to tell her my name, "I'm Naomi."

Smooth as fucking silk me.

So, there you have it...like I said it's been a joint venture and something completely new for both of us. We would be really over the moon if you could leave a review to let us know if this has worked for you and if you would like to read more.

Peace and love as always guys xx