Camp Kiwachee
AN: Yes, it took a while, but I'm a busy girl! I've got
another fic I'm working on, too. "To Go, Please." It's nearly
done for those who are reading it. Ch. 15'll be out in a couple
of weeks.
Enjoy ch.5!
--------------------------------------------------------------
Camp Kiwachee
Chapter 5: After Parties
Rating: PG13
Author: Adrial
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"Ow!"
"Mmff."
Raye peeled her lips away and rubbed the back of her
head, glaring at the offending tree branch responsible for the
golf ball sized lump forming there.
Jason's blue eyes were barely visible in the thick darkness
blanketing the night, and she felt around until she successfully
poked him in the eye.
"Ow!"
Laughing, Raye easily found his lips and resumed where they
had left off.
After a few more minutes of heated kisses, she pulled away,
breathless and dizzy with a red haze of emotions.
Jason breathed heavily against her forehead and squeezed her
waist.
"I should have twisted my ankle a *long* time ago," he gave
into the temptation and started an ascending line of kisses down her
neck.
Raye swatted him away with a scowl and folded her arms over
her chest.
"It isn't my fault you tripped over that tree stump and
just *had* to whine like a little baby for fifteen minutes until
somebody found your clumsy ass."
Jason had volunteered to retrieve the discombobluated
pinata that had been thoroughly beaten by the Chai twins and
tossed for the wolves to eat in a barbaric rage during the party,
and successfully managed to injure himself in the process. Thanks
to Raye, who'd gone to look for him when he'd been gone for a
while (after begrudgingly relenting when, unsurprisingly,
everyone nominated her), he'd been found with a nastily
twisted ankle.
Twenty minutes later, she was pinned against a tree,
tongue wrestling with him for all her worth, desperately trying
to hide the fact that she'd never been kissed like that before.
She did have to admit, though, that it was an ideal way
to break the ice.
Jason feigned hurt and grabbed her around the waist
again, "And you just *happened* to fall onto my lips while you
put ice on it?"
She struggled in his arms, thankful for the darkness that
hid her grin, and scoffed, "You practically shoved me!"
He kissed her behind the ear, "I didn't hear any protests
from you, Miss Hino."
"What about a protest from *MR.* Hino?"
"AHH!"
Raye shoved Jason's face away from her own, wincing when
he slammed into the ground and gave a yelp of pain.
"OW!"
And all (grand)parental hell broke loose.
"RAYE CALIA HINO. What have you to say for yourself?"
The stumpy old man, gray eyes blazing, stood with clenched fists
in front of the pair as they clumsily collected themselves.
Raye hastily rearranged her disheveled clothing and hair and
tried to appear as innocent as possible.
"Grandpa! Gee, what are *you* doing here this late at
night?" She ran her fingers through her hair nervously, "Shouldn't
you be across the lake, you know, karate chopping a little kid's
head off or something?"
Her grandfather's death glare silenced her ramblings,
and she folded her hands behind her back.
"I was in the middle of searching for one of the campers
who got lost during our training session this morning. I figured
I'd let him have a few hours to sniff his way out on his own, but
I have a feeling he's run home already," He scratched the back of
his head, and then shrugged back his shoulders again, plastering
on a scowl of disapproval, "I could ask you the same question."
Jason's eyes were as wide as a deer's in headlights, and
he prayed that the stories he'd heard about her grandfather's
martial arts capabilities had been extremely over-exagerrated.
I'm gonna die. I'm gonna die. Oh, God, I'm gonna die.
"Mr. Hino, I can assure you, Raye and I were only--"
"You, boy," Hino's cold eyes turned to Jason's and watched
him recoil, "should re-think speaking right now."
Jason gulped and backstepped a few feet.
Raye's embarassment morphed into anger, and she clenched
her fists to control the outburst burning in the back of her
throat, "Grandpa! Don't be rude to him! We weren't doing
anything wrong!"
He looked at his grand-daughter reproachfully, "Nothing
WRONG, Raye? You and this boy were fornicating on a tree!"
A dull thump sounded Jason's body crumbling to the ground
in mortification.
"GRANDPA!" Raye screeched, reddening to a color identical to
the fire engine red of her shirt, "We were not FORNICATING!"
He narrowed his eyes, "Just *what* would you call it then,
Raye? And I suggest you watch your tone, young lady. I am still your grandfather."
Raye bit back her curt remark and searched for a less volatile
choice of wording.
Through clenched teeth she answered him, "Grandpa, Jason and I
were only kissing. *JUST* kissing. Nothing more, nothing less. I am SEVENTEEN. Shouldn't I be able to make my own decisions without you
breathing down my neck every step of the way?"
*cricket*
Hino narrowed his eyes, contemplating her words for a
moment.
"We will discuss this later, Raye. From now on, I don't
want to find you any where near this boy again. I know what's
best."
Raye glared at his face, ready to explode, but saw the
edges of worry underneath his tired eyes and softened.
"Grandpa, you don't understand. I'm not a little girl
anymore, and I'll kiss who I want to kiss *where* I want to kiss
them. You should trust me."
He scratched his balding head with a heavy sigh, "I trust
you, Raye, it's HIM," He pointed a finger at the mass of male
embarassment laying in fetal position on the ground, "that I
don't trust."
Raye smiled, in spite of the situation, at Jason's pale
face and closed eyelids, "Let me deal with that, Grandpa."
Flashes of indecision shadowed his face for a moment,
"You like this boy?" He inquired, looking at Jason as if he
were a dead fly, and he longed for nothing more than to rip
his arms and legs off.
"I really do, Grandpa," Raye wiped her forehead, reddening
at the thought of her grandpa and her having this discussion when
Jason was sprawled out like an idiot on the ground.
His forehead smoothed, and he sighed, "No more forni-"
"Grandpa..." She eyed him with a warning gaze.
He smiled sheepishly, "Just be careful, Raye. You're all
I have left in this world, and I don't want you to get hurt, you
know..."
He kicked bashedly at the ground, his awkardness evident.
Raye smiled at his endearing comment and gathered him in her
arms, "I will, Grandpa. I love you."
He patted her hair softly and released her, "Go on, go on.
That's enough for one night."
Raye laughed, "Thanks, Grandpa."
He glared at Jason again, "And if he tries anything, I'll
twist him into a pretzel and sink him to the bottom of the lake."
Rolling her eyes, Raye ushered him away, "Goodnight, Grandpa."
"Ah...just one more thing, Raye?"
"Yeah?"
"Do I uh...need to put you on the...eh...pill?"
"GRANDPA!"
-------------------------------------------------------------------
"'Night, Chloe. 'Night, Becca."
Lita flicked off the Hello Kitty lamp in between their
beds, smiling warmly at their sleeping faces sunk deep into
white pillows.
The door to their bunk creaked closed, and she
hopped down the porch steps.
A low rumble behind her back startled her, and she
whipped around, only to be tackled to the ground by a rock hard
body.
"OUCH!" She yelped, struggling underneath the weight that
had her pinned to the rocky earth.
"Pinned ya," Matt announced triumphantly. Lita smiled coyly,
and ran her fingernails down his chest slowly.
"Aren't you just such a strong, strong, man."
Matt straightened his shoulders and stuck his nose in the
air, "Glad to see you've noticed my masculan--Woah!"
In a tangle of limbs, Lita ended up stradling his waist
and grinning victoriously at his stunned expression.
"That was a cheap shot." He pouted.
She laughed, "Nope. *This* is a cheap shot."
She bent down over his face, taking his lips with hers,
and he leaned up to meet her. She'd been waiting for him to
kiss her for what? Years now? Seemed like it anyways...
He deepened their kiss, boldy parting her lips with his
tongue. She allowed him to, wrapping her arms around his neck
and pulling him up until she sat on his lap and he was sitting
up straight.
I'm making out with a guy in the middle of the night
with six year olds sleeping three feet away. What's wrong with
this picture?
"Hey! I wasn't finished yet," Matt tried to bring her
mouth back to his, but she laughed and stood, dusting off her
legs and clothes with the palms of her hands.
"We're counselors, Matt. What if someone catches us?"
He shrugged, "So what? We'll tell them we were *counseling*
eachother on proper C.P.R. techinque."
Lita rolled her eyes at his comment and turned around
at the sound of a muffled whimper. She flew through the screen
door she'd earlier walked out of, Matt followingly closely behind
her. Once in inside, they knelt beside a weeping Becca's bed.
Becca's watery blue eyes shed hot trails of tears down
her cheeks and neck, and she sniffled against them.
"Don't leave me! Don't leave me!" Her tiny arms flailed
around her body franctically, grasping the empty space around her
in search of something neither of the two forms beside her could
see.
"Becca, calm down, sweetie. I'm here," Lita smoothed the
amber bangs from the girl's forhead, desperately trying to ease her
sobs.
Becca struggled against Lita's hands, still reaching into
the night blindly.
"They're gonna leave! Let me go! I have to get
them!," She clawed at Matt's hands as they tried to pin her
arms down, "They don't know I'm...they c-can't see me..."
Her frantic sobs softened to broken, defeated whimpers,
"Wh-why can't they see me, Lita?"
Lita's emerald eyes spilled over with tears at
the young girl's painfilled gaze, begging her for an answer
she could never give.
"Who, Becca? Who's there?" Matt clasped her tiny
hand in his own while rubbing the small of Lita's back at
the same time.
Becca looked horrified, "Didn't you see them? My Mommy
and Daddy...d-didn't you see? They were there! They couldn't
see me, and I tr-tried to tell them I'm here, but they couldn't
hear. I wanted to go to them, but my legs wouldn't work," She
stumbled over her sobs, "My-my legs never work...when they come."
Lita tried desperately not to cry out herself, and she
wiped her moist eyes with the back of her hand.
"Becca..."
Words wouldn't come. Hadn't she had that same dream
before? So many nights she'd spent haunted by her mother and
father's images, yet never able to reach out to them, touch them,
hear their voices...
She searched Matt's eyes desperately, unable to find a
way to comfort Becca other than holding her tightly against her
chest.
Matt saw the pain in Lita's eyes--the same pain he'd
seen hidden behind a well-constructed and strategically placed
veil of strength the first day they'd met.
He placed a tender kiss on her forehead and wrapped his
arms around her and Becca until both of their tears dried and the
gentle hands of sleep lulled the her away with them once again.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
"When's your birthday?"
"January 21."
"Favorite color?"
"Red."
"Food?"
"All food."
"Song?"
"I can't answer that. SpongeBob is still ringing in my ears."
"Alright, my turn," Zach grabbed the bowl from her
hands and set it in his lap, trying to juggle the flashlight
and the stick that was holding up their mini-tent at the same
time.
They'd snuck out of their bunks, Ami being the least
enthused about sneaking around at midnight while her friends
were resting for the next day's activities. Unbeknownst to her,
all suddenly turned into two strategically placed pillows
underneath a blanket fifteen minutes after she'd made her
escape. But then again, Zach was so persuading with his
little boy grin and wide eyes that she just couldn't say no.
She smiled at him through the dimness, contemplating
how long it would take before they were mauled by bears or
caught underneath a sheet in the middle of the woods.
"OK...first question," Zach wiggled his eyebrows at
her and took a dramatic pause before unfolding the piece of paper.
"When did you go on your first date?"
She bit her lip. She did *not* want to think about
her first date.
"Uh...pass?" She scratched the back of her head nervously.
He shook his head, "No way. I answered your questions,
you *have* to answer mine."
She scoffed, "Fine. Eight grade. Horrible experience.
Next question, please."
He grinned, "Ah ha. At least I know I don't have any
competition there."
Ami laughed again and shoved the bowl back in his
hands. Zach reached in, retrieving a piece of paper.
"Favorite T.V. show?"
"Didn't anyone ever tell you T.V. rots your brain?"
"Of course they did. Haven't listened to them yet."
"Favorite color?"
"Blue."
Zach nodded, "Mmmhmm," and tugged on a lock of her azure
hair, "I can see that."
She laughed and pushed his hand away.
After a few seconds of digging, he pulled out a slip
and his eyebrows rose dramatically, followed by a sly smile.
"Latest sexual fantasy?"
"EXCUSE ME?"
Zach flashed a devious grin as he watched her squirm.
Ami's eyes were wide, "I know that wasn't in the bowl."
"Ah...but you can't be so sure," He trailed his
index finger along her jaw bone and tapped her nose.
"I'm not answering that no matter HOW cute you think
you are," She crossed her arms over her chest and focused
her eyes on the peak of the tent.
"Come on, you have to have one. What is it?" He reached
over and poked her rib cage, satisfied when she flinched
considerably.
"Zach, that's way too personAL!" She leaned over
him, trying desperately to keep his fingers away from
her stomach, "Zach! S-stop, I'm way to-too ticklish."
"Tell me and I'll stop," He leaned over her, digging
his fingers into her sides more persistently until her
face ached from laughing.
"No!"
"What is it? Whipped creme, maybe?"
"Zach!" Her face was red now.
"Nah...you're more of a chocolate lover, right?"
"I'm s-so serio-serious, Zach. If you don't-stop now..."
"You'll what?"
"I'll--I'll..."
"Sorry, can't hear you, Amy. What was that? Did
you say a leather whip and handcuffs?"
"ZACH!"
Finally, the makeshift tent gave way underneath
their movements and Zach fell over her torso, his face
cradled in her neck.
She took the opportunity to untangle her limbs
from the blanket.
"Not so fast."
He tugged her back down and ignored the bowl as
it toppled over, spilling the white sheets of paper over
the ground.
Amy breathed heavily over his chest, laughing even
though his fingers were no longer tickiling her sides.
"I-can't-breathe," She panted, trying to control
her laughs.
She rested her head on his chest, willing her beating
heart to return to normal pace. Zach laughed deeply and
smoothed down the hair on her neck.
Adjusting herself so that she lay beside him with
their legs entangled rather that on top of him in a
particularily compromising position, Ami sighed and grabbed
his hand in her own.
"Thanks," She whispered against his neck.
"For what?"
"For this."
Zach smiled, "What? The sucky tent or the embarassing
ques--"
His words trailed off into her lips as they settled
onto his own. She broke the kiss after a few seconds, feeling
slightly embarassed.
"S-Sorry, I mean..." She stumbled over her words, unable
to shake the hazy feeling filling her head.
Zach answered her by pulling her face down to his again
and kissing her until her heart beat calmed and she relaxed in
his arms, kissing him and holding him, with a collapsed sheet
to hide the pink tint of her cheeks.
---------------------------------------------------------
Serena hummed to herself that night while she sat
absentmindedly in front of the lake, watching amorphous shadows
dance across the windows of the martial arts camp beyond its waters.
About 100 yards away, Darien lay quietly on the dry earth,
staring at the velvety sky, peppered with drops of light, with his
hands drawn up behind his head for support.
Both, none the wiser of the other's presence, sighed a
deep sigh and shifted their bodies restlessly.
I wonder what he's doing right now... She mused
thoughtfully and played idly with a lock of her midnight-stained
hair.
Sucking face with that disgusting Brianna probably...
She scoffed, the sound muffled by a tuft of her hair that flew
across her face in response to the breeze.
The same breeze tousled a few locks of Darien's ebony
hair, while his thoughts drifted to no place in particular. Her
face was there, as always--an image he'd kept safe within the deep
confines of his mind for times when he needed comfort, or simply
proof that there was still hope in his world.
She'd never understand me...she's too inexperienced...too
young...too perfect to ever be troubled by my pathetic life.
Serena leaned back on the palms of her hands, digging her
toe into the sand.
Why should I care, anyway? He probably isn't thinking
about me right now, so why should I?
She growled inwardly at her weakness when it came to him.
She knew she would always think of him. He was an obnoxious crick
in her neck that she couldn't assauge...or really didn't want to.
She plucked a rock from off the ground and tossed it into
the lake.
Darien's ears perked up at the sound a tiny splash from
the lake. Shrugging it off as a fish or something, he continued
in his aimless thoughts.
It'd be so much easier if you were here...
The stinging behind his eyes alarmed him, and he inhaled
deeply, sitting up to change his focus from such thoughts.
Why did you have to leave anyway?
With an angry growl, he rubbed his hands over his face
roughly and jumped to his feet.
This is no time for a pity party, Chiba. You're an
adult now. Get a friggin' back bone.
Serena gasped. Were there bears in this lake? Her heart
flip-flopped inside her chest, and she shivered in her place.
Where else could a growl come from?
Standing quickly, she darted her eyes around in search of
anything out of the ordinary.
This is so stupid, Serena. She mentally berated herself
for being so childish.
How old are you again?
The thought of a colossal grizzly lethargically bounding
through camp quarters flitted into her mind, and she deviously
pictured it mauling a certain red-head as she slept soundly in
her newly arrived canopy bed.
She couldn't help the snort that left her nose, nor the
giggles that followed.
What I wouldn't give to see the look on that overly
mascaraed face of hers.
What did Darien see in Brianna, anyway? She wasn't
right enough for him...*good* enough for him.
Sleepily, she outlined two ovals in the colbat sky,
and swore that God must have done the same for his eyes...
those hauntingly dark eyes that held something in them that
she couldn't put her finger on, but desperately wanted to.
"If he wasn't so cold, maybe I'd have a chance..." She uttered
into the night and shook her head, "Why do I have to have feelings
for him out of *ALL* the men in the world?" With a scowl, she smeared
the pictures of nothing she'd drawn with her index finger in the sand.
"We're practically living on separate continents."
He swore he was going insane. Yep, he'd finally cracked.
Soon he'd be talking to assorted voices in his head while flinging
off of white matresses stuck on walls in the looney-bin.
Her laugh.
He'd heard it, he swore he did. Feathery and light, it
drifted over his ears in soft caresses, dissipating before he
could grasp whether he'd imagined it or not.
"Nah." He shrugged in the darkness.
As the greedy hands of exaustion threatened to tug him
into an alluring abyss of sleep, Serena's face began to filter
out of his vision like sand through his fingertips.
He didn't fear he'd lose her, though. She always came
back to him when he needed her, and he closed his eyelids at
that comforting thought.
The pain that stung his heart dulled to nothing.
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End of Chapter 5
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What? No Mina/Kunz, you ask? Well, they'll have their time
next chapter, don't you worry your pretty little head off about
that. :D I gotta save SOMETHING for later.
Tell me what you think!
Peace
~Adrial~
AN: Yes, it took a while, but I'm a busy girl! I've got
another fic I'm working on, too. "To Go, Please." It's nearly
done for those who are reading it. Ch. 15'll be out in a couple
of weeks.
Enjoy ch.5!
--------------------------------------------------------------
Camp Kiwachee
Chapter 5: After Parties
Rating: PG13
Author: Adrial
--------------------------------------------------------------
"Ow!"
"Mmff."
Raye peeled her lips away and rubbed the back of her
head, glaring at the offending tree branch responsible for the
golf ball sized lump forming there.
Jason's blue eyes were barely visible in the thick darkness
blanketing the night, and she felt around until she successfully
poked him in the eye.
"Ow!"
Laughing, Raye easily found his lips and resumed where they
had left off.
After a few more minutes of heated kisses, she pulled away,
breathless and dizzy with a red haze of emotions.
Jason breathed heavily against her forehead and squeezed her
waist.
"I should have twisted my ankle a *long* time ago," he gave
into the temptation and started an ascending line of kisses down her
neck.
Raye swatted him away with a scowl and folded her arms over
her chest.
"It isn't my fault you tripped over that tree stump and
just *had* to whine like a little baby for fifteen minutes until
somebody found your clumsy ass."
Jason had volunteered to retrieve the discombobluated
pinata that had been thoroughly beaten by the Chai twins and
tossed for the wolves to eat in a barbaric rage during the party,
and successfully managed to injure himself in the process. Thanks
to Raye, who'd gone to look for him when he'd been gone for a
while (after begrudgingly relenting when, unsurprisingly,
everyone nominated her), he'd been found with a nastily
twisted ankle.
Twenty minutes later, she was pinned against a tree,
tongue wrestling with him for all her worth, desperately trying
to hide the fact that she'd never been kissed like that before.
She did have to admit, though, that it was an ideal way
to break the ice.
Jason feigned hurt and grabbed her around the waist
again, "And you just *happened* to fall onto my lips while you
put ice on it?"
She struggled in his arms, thankful for the darkness that
hid her grin, and scoffed, "You practically shoved me!"
He kissed her behind the ear, "I didn't hear any protests
from you, Miss Hino."
"What about a protest from *MR.* Hino?"
"AHH!"
Raye shoved Jason's face away from her own, wincing when
he slammed into the ground and gave a yelp of pain.
"OW!"
And all (grand)parental hell broke loose.
"RAYE CALIA HINO. What have you to say for yourself?"
The stumpy old man, gray eyes blazing, stood with clenched fists
in front of the pair as they clumsily collected themselves.
Raye hastily rearranged her disheveled clothing and hair and
tried to appear as innocent as possible.
"Grandpa! Gee, what are *you* doing here this late at
night?" She ran her fingers through her hair nervously, "Shouldn't
you be across the lake, you know, karate chopping a little kid's
head off or something?"
Her grandfather's death glare silenced her ramblings,
and she folded her hands behind her back.
"I was in the middle of searching for one of the campers
who got lost during our training session this morning. I figured
I'd let him have a few hours to sniff his way out on his own, but
I have a feeling he's run home already," He scratched the back of
his head, and then shrugged back his shoulders again, plastering
on a scowl of disapproval, "I could ask you the same question."
Jason's eyes were as wide as a deer's in headlights, and
he prayed that the stories he'd heard about her grandfather's
martial arts capabilities had been extremely over-exagerrated.
I'm gonna die. I'm gonna die. Oh, God, I'm gonna die.
"Mr. Hino, I can assure you, Raye and I were only--"
"You, boy," Hino's cold eyes turned to Jason's and watched
him recoil, "should re-think speaking right now."
Jason gulped and backstepped a few feet.
Raye's embarassment morphed into anger, and she clenched
her fists to control the outburst burning in the back of her
throat, "Grandpa! Don't be rude to him! We weren't doing
anything wrong!"
He looked at his grand-daughter reproachfully, "Nothing
WRONG, Raye? You and this boy were fornicating on a tree!"
A dull thump sounded Jason's body crumbling to the ground
in mortification.
"GRANDPA!" Raye screeched, reddening to a color identical to
the fire engine red of her shirt, "We were not FORNICATING!"
He narrowed his eyes, "Just *what* would you call it then,
Raye? And I suggest you watch your tone, young lady. I am still your grandfather."
Raye bit back her curt remark and searched for a less volatile
choice of wording.
Through clenched teeth she answered him, "Grandpa, Jason and I
were only kissing. *JUST* kissing. Nothing more, nothing less. I am SEVENTEEN. Shouldn't I be able to make my own decisions without you
breathing down my neck every step of the way?"
*cricket*
Hino narrowed his eyes, contemplating her words for a
moment.
"We will discuss this later, Raye. From now on, I don't
want to find you any where near this boy again. I know what's
best."
Raye glared at his face, ready to explode, but saw the
edges of worry underneath his tired eyes and softened.
"Grandpa, you don't understand. I'm not a little girl
anymore, and I'll kiss who I want to kiss *where* I want to kiss
them. You should trust me."
He scratched his balding head with a heavy sigh, "I trust
you, Raye, it's HIM," He pointed a finger at the mass of male
embarassment laying in fetal position on the ground, "that I
don't trust."
Raye smiled, in spite of the situation, at Jason's pale
face and closed eyelids, "Let me deal with that, Grandpa."
Flashes of indecision shadowed his face for a moment,
"You like this boy?" He inquired, looking at Jason as if he
were a dead fly, and he longed for nothing more than to rip
his arms and legs off.
"I really do, Grandpa," Raye wiped her forehead, reddening
at the thought of her grandpa and her having this discussion when
Jason was sprawled out like an idiot on the ground.
His forehead smoothed, and he sighed, "No more forni-"
"Grandpa..." She eyed him with a warning gaze.
He smiled sheepishly, "Just be careful, Raye. You're all
I have left in this world, and I don't want you to get hurt, you
know..."
He kicked bashedly at the ground, his awkardness evident.
Raye smiled at his endearing comment and gathered him in her
arms, "I will, Grandpa. I love you."
He patted her hair softly and released her, "Go on, go on.
That's enough for one night."
Raye laughed, "Thanks, Grandpa."
He glared at Jason again, "And if he tries anything, I'll
twist him into a pretzel and sink him to the bottom of the lake."
Rolling her eyes, Raye ushered him away, "Goodnight, Grandpa."
"Ah...just one more thing, Raye?"
"Yeah?"
"Do I uh...need to put you on the...eh...pill?"
"GRANDPA!"
-------------------------------------------------------------------
"'Night, Chloe. 'Night, Becca."
Lita flicked off the Hello Kitty lamp in between their
beds, smiling warmly at their sleeping faces sunk deep into
white pillows.
The door to their bunk creaked closed, and she
hopped down the porch steps.
A low rumble behind her back startled her, and she
whipped around, only to be tackled to the ground by a rock hard
body.
"OUCH!" She yelped, struggling underneath the weight that
had her pinned to the rocky earth.
"Pinned ya," Matt announced triumphantly. Lita smiled coyly,
and ran her fingernails down his chest slowly.
"Aren't you just such a strong, strong, man."
Matt straightened his shoulders and stuck his nose in the
air, "Glad to see you've noticed my masculan--Woah!"
In a tangle of limbs, Lita ended up stradling his waist
and grinning victoriously at his stunned expression.
"That was a cheap shot." He pouted.
She laughed, "Nope. *This* is a cheap shot."
She bent down over his face, taking his lips with hers,
and he leaned up to meet her. She'd been waiting for him to
kiss her for what? Years now? Seemed like it anyways...
He deepened their kiss, boldy parting her lips with his
tongue. She allowed him to, wrapping her arms around his neck
and pulling him up until she sat on his lap and he was sitting
up straight.
I'm making out with a guy in the middle of the night
with six year olds sleeping three feet away. What's wrong with
this picture?
"Hey! I wasn't finished yet," Matt tried to bring her
mouth back to his, but she laughed and stood, dusting off her
legs and clothes with the palms of her hands.
"We're counselors, Matt. What if someone catches us?"
He shrugged, "So what? We'll tell them we were *counseling*
eachother on proper C.P.R. techinque."
Lita rolled her eyes at his comment and turned around
at the sound of a muffled whimper. She flew through the screen
door she'd earlier walked out of, Matt followingly closely behind
her. Once in inside, they knelt beside a weeping Becca's bed.
Becca's watery blue eyes shed hot trails of tears down
her cheeks and neck, and she sniffled against them.
"Don't leave me! Don't leave me!" Her tiny arms flailed
around her body franctically, grasping the empty space around her
in search of something neither of the two forms beside her could
see.
"Becca, calm down, sweetie. I'm here," Lita smoothed the
amber bangs from the girl's forhead, desperately trying to ease her
sobs.
Becca struggled against Lita's hands, still reaching into
the night blindly.
"They're gonna leave! Let me go! I have to get
them!," She clawed at Matt's hands as they tried to pin her
arms down, "They don't know I'm...they c-can't see me..."
Her frantic sobs softened to broken, defeated whimpers,
"Wh-why can't they see me, Lita?"
Lita's emerald eyes spilled over with tears at
the young girl's painfilled gaze, begging her for an answer
she could never give.
"Who, Becca? Who's there?" Matt clasped her tiny
hand in his own while rubbing the small of Lita's back at
the same time.
Becca looked horrified, "Didn't you see them? My Mommy
and Daddy...d-didn't you see? They were there! They couldn't
see me, and I tr-tried to tell them I'm here, but they couldn't
hear. I wanted to go to them, but my legs wouldn't work," She
stumbled over her sobs, "My-my legs never work...when they come."
Lita tried desperately not to cry out herself, and she
wiped her moist eyes with the back of her hand.
"Becca..."
Words wouldn't come. Hadn't she had that same dream
before? So many nights she'd spent haunted by her mother and
father's images, yet never able to reach out to them, touch them,
hear their voices...
She searched Matt's eyes desperately, unable to find a
way to comfort Becca other than holding her tightly against her
chest.
Matt saw the pain in Lita's eyes--the same pain he'd
seen hidden behind a well-constructed and strategically placed
veil of strength the first day they'd met.
He placed a tender kiss on her forehead and wrapped his
arms around her and Becca until both of their tears dried and the
gentle hands of sleep lulled the her away with them once again.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
"When's your birthday?"
"January 21."
"Favorite color?"
"Red."
"Food?"
"All food."
"Song?"
"I can't answer that. SpongeBob is still ringing in my ears."
"Alright, my turn," Zach grabbed the bowl from her
hands and set it in his lap, trying to juggle the flashlight
and the stick that was holding up their mini-tent at the same
time.
They'd snuck out of their bunks, Ami being the least
enthused about sneaking around at midnight while her friends
were resting for the next day's activities. Unbeknownst to her,
all suddenly turned into two strategically placed pillows
underneath a blanket fifteen minutes after she'd made her
escape. But then again, Zach was so persuading with his
little boy grin and wide eyes that she just couldn't say no.
She smiled at him through the dimness, contemplating
how long it would take before they were mauled by bears or
caught underneath a sheet in the middle of the woods.
"OK...first question," Zach wiggled his eyebrows at
her and took a dramatic pause before unfolding the piece of paper.
"When did you go on your first date?"
She bit her lip. She did *not* want to think about
her first date.
"Uh...pass?" She scratched the back of her head nervously.
He shook his head, "No way. I answered your questions,
you *have* to answer mine."
She scoffed, "Fine. Eight grade. Horrible experience.
Next question, please."
He grinned, "Ah ha. At least I know I don't have any
competition there."
Ami laughed again and shoved the bowl back in his
hands. Zach reached in, retrieving a piece of paper.
"Favorite T.V. show?"
"Didn't anyone ever tell you T.V. rots your brain?"
"Of course they did. Haven't listened to them yet."
"Favorite color?"
"Blue."
Zach nodded, "Mmmhmm," and tugged on a lock of her azure
hair, "I can see that."
She laughed and pushed his hand away.
After a few seconds of digging, he pulled out a slip
and his eyebrows rose dramatically, followed by a sly smile.
"Latest sexual fantasy?"
"EXCUSE ME?"
Zach flashed a devious grin as he watched her squirm.
Ami's eyes were wide, "I know that wasn't in the bowl."
"Ah...but you can't be so sure," He trailed his
index finger along her jaw bone and tapped her nose.
"I'm not answering that no matter HOW cute you think
you are," She crossed her arms over her chest and focused
her eyes on the peak of the tent.
"Come on, you have to have one. What is it?" He reached
over and poked her rib cage, satisfied when she flinched
considerably.
"Zach, that's way too personAL!" She leaned over
him, trying desperately to keep his fingers away from
her stomach, "Zach! S-stop, I'm way to-too ticklish."
"Tell me and I'll stop," He leaned over her, digging
his fingers into her sides more persistently until her
face ached from laughing.
"No!"
"What is it? Whipped creme, maybe?"
"Zach!" Her face was red now.
"Nah...you're more of a chocolate lover, right?"
"I'm s-so serio-serious, Zach. If you don't-stop now..."
"You'll what?"
"I'll--I'll..."
"Sorry, can't hear you, Amy. What was that? Did
you say a leather whip and handcuffs?"
"ZACH!"
Finally, the makeshift tent gave way underneath
their movements and Zach fell over her torso, his face
cradled in her neck.
She took the opportunity to untangle her limbs
from the blanket.
"Not so fast."
He tugged her back down and ignored the bowl as
it toppled over, spilling the white sheets of paper over
the ground.
Amy breathed heavily over his chest, laughing even
though his fingers were no longer tickiling her sides.
"I-can't-breathe," She panted, trying to control
her laughs.
She rested her head on his chest, willing her beating
heart to return to normal pace. Zach laughed deeply and
smoothed down the hair on her neck.
Adjusting herself so that she lay beside him with
their legs entangled rather that on top of him in a
particularily compromising position, Ami sighed and grabbed
his hand in her own.
"Thanks," She whispered against his neck.
"For what?"
"For this."
Zach smiled, "What? The sucky tent or the embarassing
ques--"
His words trailed off into her lips as they settled
onto his own. She broke the kiss after a few seconds, feeling
slightly embarassed.
"S-Sorry, I mean..." She stumbled over her words, unable
to shake the hazy feeling filling her head.
Zach answered her by pulling her face down to his again
and kissing her until her heart beat calmed and she relaxed in
his arms, kissing him and holding him, with a collapsed sheet
to hide the pink tint of her cheeks.
---------------------------------------------------------
Serena hummed to herself that night while she sat
absentmindedly in front of the lake, watching amorphous shadows
dance across the windows of the martial arts camp beyond its waters.
About 100 yards away, Darien lay quietly on the dry earth,
staring at the velvety sky, peppered with drops of light, with his
hands drawn up behind his head for support.
Both, none the wiser of the other's presence, sighed a
deep sigh and shifted their bodies restlessly.
I wonder what he's doing right now... She mused
thoughtfully and played idly with a lock of her midnight-stained
hair.
Sucking face with that disgusting Brianna probably...
She scoffed, the sound muffled by a tuft of her hair that flew
across her face in response to the breeze.
The same breeze tousled a few locks of Darien's ebony
hair, while his thoughts drifted to no place in particular. Her
face was there, as always--an image he'd kept safe within the deep
confines of his mind for times when he needed comfort, or simply
proof that there was still hope in his world.
She'd never understand me...she's too inexperienced...too
young...too perfect to ever be troubled by my pathetic life.
Serena leaned back on the palms of her hands, digging her
toe into the sand.
Why should I care, anyway? He probably isn't thinking
about me right now, so why should I?
She growled inwardly at her weakness when it came to him.
She knew she would always think of him. He was an obnoxious crick
in her neck that she couldn't assauge...or really didn't want to.
She plucked a rock from off the ground and tossed it into
the lake.
Darien's ears perked up at the sound a tiny splash from
the lake. Shrugging it off as a fish or something, he continued
in his aimless thoughts.
It'd be so much easier if you were here...
The stinging behind his eyes alarmed him, and he inhaled
deeply, sitting up to change his focus from such thoughts.
Why did you have to leave anyway?
With an angry growl, he rubbed his hands over his face
roughly and jumped to his feet.
This is no time for a pity party, Chiba. You're an
adult now. Get a friggin' back bone.
Serena gasped. Were there bears in this lake? Her heart
flip-flopped inside her chest, and she shivered in her place.
Where else could a growl come from?
Standing quickly, she darted her eyes around in search of
anything out of the ordinary.
This is so stupid, Serena. She mentally berated herself
for being so childish.
How old are you again?
The thought of a colossal grizzly lethargically bounding
through camp quarters flitted into her mind, and she deviously
pictured it mauling a certain red-head as she slept soundly in
her newly arrived canopy bed.
She couldn't help the snort that left her nose, nor the
giggles that followed.
What I wouldn't give to see the look on that overly
mascaraed face of hers.
What did Darien see in Brianna, anyway? She wasn't
right enough for him...*good* enough for him.
Sleepily, she outlined two ovals in the colbat sky,
and swore that God must have done the same for his eyes...
those hauntingly dark eyes that held something in them that
she couldn't put her finger on, but desperately wanted to.
"If he wasn't so cold, maybe I'd have a chance..." She uttered
into the night and shook her head, "Why do I have to have feelings
for him out of *ALL* the men in the world?" With a scowl, she smeared
the pictures of nothing she'd drawn with her index finger in the sand.
"We're practically living on separate continents."
He swore he was going insane. Yep, he'd finally cracked.
Soon he'd be talking to assorted voices in his head while flinging
off of white matresses stuck on walls in the looney-bin.
Her laugh.
He'd heard it, he swore he did. Feathery and light, it
drifted over his ears in soft caresses, dissipating before he
could grasp whether he'd imagined it or not.
"Nah." He shrugged in the darkness.
As the greedy hands of exaustion threatened to tug him
into an alluring abyss of sleep, Serena's face began to filter
out of his vision like sand through his fingertips.
He didn't fear he'd lose her, though. She always came
back to him when he needed her, and he closed his eyelids at
that comforting thought.
The pain that stung his heart dulled to nothing.
-------------------------------------------------------------
End of Chapter 5
-------------------------------------------------------------
What? No Mina/Kunz, you ask? Well, they'll have their time
next chapter, don't you worry your pretty little head off about
that. :D I gotta save SOMETHING for later.
Tell me what you think!
Peace
~Adrial~