Just a short thing I wrote while I was getting my hair done this morning.
When she finally found him, Guy was sitting on the sand, under the cool shade of the beach greenery. Belt sat with him, and they both seemed to be working intently on something, their backs turned to her. It was pretty early, and her family was still asleep, so it was very silent.
Eep stalked up to them, quietly. Wanting to see what they were doing without being seen herself, Eep climbed up the tree that hung over them, and looked down at their work.
She tilted her head in confusion, nose scrunched up, and eyebrows furrowed.
Belt made a noise, and Guy laughed as if he had just been told a "joke". It was a very quiet, throaty laugh. It seemed they had not been awake for long.
"What are you doing?"
Guy cried out in surprise, jumping a bit in his place. Belt looked at her, unperturbed, and reached up with his long arm, saying hi.
"Eep! Hi. Umm, hello" He tilted his head back to look at her. She was hanging right above him, beaming down at his flustered face.
Eep jumped down from the tree and went to crouch next to Guy.
"What are you doing?" She asked again.
"This," Guy presented her a strange crafty thing, weaved out of brown twigs and thin leaves. It was brightly decorated with green and blue flowers.
Eep poked at it, carefully.
"A helmet?"
"No," Guy chuckled. "I call it: a Hat,"
"hat," Eep repeated, entranced by the thing. "What does it do?"
"It protects you," she looked up at him "from the Sun,"
Eep sat down on the sand, and Belt perched himself around her shoulders.
She looked at Guy with an amused grin.
"The Sun is not dangerous," Eep said this with the tone Ugga used when she corrected Sandy on something she should know.
"Oh, yes it is," Guy scooted closer to Eep, eyes twinkling like they did when he explained something new.
He talked with his hands, and made noises when the word he wanted to use didn't come out of his mouth fast enough.
"You know when you're walking on the beach, when the Sun is all the way up in the sky?" Eep nodded, and Guy continued "Well, sometimes, when you're out there for too long, your head goes aURGGGHHAA, a-and it feels like you've been hit by a bunch of punching punch monkeys! And your hair itches and goes uGEEEHA!"
Eep looked down at Belt, still perched on her shoulder, and shrugged.
"Yeah? Well, I'm pretty sure that /that/ is the Sun, punching your head, but on the inside!"
"what?" She scrunched up her nose "like your brain?"
"Yes! Exactly! I'm still not sure why it does it, but for now..." Guy placed the hat gingerly on top of Eep's head, and she giggled "this will keep us safe,"
Eep turned her face toward Guy, fast, making the hat fall over her eyes. Both Belt and Guy chuckled.
She peeked at him from under the Hat, and smiled. Guy stared.
Belt dismounted from Eep's shoulder and poked his friend on the side, snapping him out of his trance.
"Oh, umm," Guy cleared his throat, and looked down at the rest of his Hat collection, some still not finished, "so, what'd you think?"
Eep looked down at the other Hats too, lower lip between her teeth, thinking. Guy dared to look at her again, and found himself entranced by the curve of her eyelashes, and her sunlit skin. He found he could not count the number of freckles that peppered her cheeks. It made him think of the night sky, and millions of sparkling suns beaming down on them from Tomorrow.
With a grunt and a huff, Eep reached over at the pile of Hats, and grabbed one made with huge oval-ish leafs, colored bright pink. She slapped it on Guy's head, startling him out of his thoughts of floating suns.
"There! Don't let the Sun punch your brain," she said "You need it,"
Guy chuckled, looking at her from under the rim of his own Hat.
"Thank you,"
Eep smiled shyly, playing with a wild strand of hair that had fallen out of place.
Belt picked up a Hat of his own, and placed it on his head, but the thing was so big it ended up covering half of his body. Eep chuckled at this, not noticing Guy leaning closer to her.
When she finally turned her face, Guy's own was a mere inches apart.
Guy visibly flustered, and they both looked down at their sniffers.
Eep closed the distance between them, which brought out a small meep from Guy.
Their sniffers touched, and their drummers thumped, and everything was good.
The Sun didn't punch their brains that day.