"Hold still"
"Oww!'
"Oh, stop being a big baby. They're just seeds."
' Just shut up and do it !" At that, Morgead yanked the last burr out of Jez's hair. Jez howled, then whipped around to scowl at him. A few strands of flame-red hair still trailed from the prickly burr.
Morgead smirked. "You're welcome." Jez only huffed in reply. She scooted along the forest floor to sit next to him. Pine needles, crumbling leaves, and clumps of soil clung to her hands, so she wiped them off on her jeans. She turned to give Morgead an appraising look.
"You're dirty, Morgy," Jez said while wrinkling her nose.
She nimbly extended her legs until the tips of her clean, white sneakers were nearly even with his graying ones. Rubber was peeling off the soles, and the seam had burst open in the front of the right shoe so that it flopped open like a gaping mouth. His big toe poked out, dirt crusted along the nail-bed.
Morgead frowned down at the patches of skin that showed through the dusting of city-grime coating his knobby ankles. It was true; he was dirty. Not only that, but he'd outgrown his jeans and he couldn't remember the last time a pair of scissors had been taken to his shaggy dark hair. It's not like there was someone to show him how to take care of these things. His chin started to jut forward mutinously.
" You're one to talk," Morgead licked his thumb, then wiped a dark smudge of dried blood that caked the pale skin along her jaw. He froze, as Jez's eyes widened until a line of white shone around her silvery-blue iris.
Morgead's thumb ghosted over her cheek as his fingertips rested lightly on the pulse that beat just below her jaw line. Late summer heat buzzed in the air as leaves in the forest canopy rustled. The throaty caw of a raven echoed through the trees. Jez broke away and tucked her chin down. Flame-red curls tumbled forward to shield her face. Morgead's lungs constricted as he realized that he had just crossed a line. I didn't mean…I messed up. Don't go.
Her head still lowered, Jez regarded him trough a russet tangle. She bumped her shoulder against his.
"It's okay, Morgy. I still like you—even though you're a dirty gutter-rat." Morgead made a show of spluttering in anger, but hid his relief as the mood suddenly lifted.
"Don't—" He was about to spin off in a rent, but paused. Instead, he propped one leg on her knee and wiggled his dirty toe in her face. Jez shrieked in disgust and slammed an elbow into his shoulder. Morgead collapsed on the forest floor, laughing.