Terk's Advice
(A/N: Another update! This is becoming a habit of mine; I need to get these old stories sorted. This chapter has no disclaimer, apart from the characters and so on. I don't think I need to explain, lol. Enjoy!)
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The next evening was cold and dismal, the jungle air humid and warm, the winds picking up signs of a storm approaching, long and wild. Small droplets of falling rain had already begun, pattering on the wooden roof of the tree house.
Jane had made it her duty to cover all of the windows and brace all of the doors and exits, just in case of precautions. "We could be in the chance of a hurricane," she had warned Tarzan as she had pushed a chair to the door hinge and checked its security. "We might be stranded here all night, if possible." A fierce wind began to flutter the shades.
Tarzan had helped her, protecting all vulnerable areas of the house and holding them off safely. His agility even with this task was unreal, and it was at times that Jane would only stop her work just to watch him at his best, marvelling in silence. She simply couldn't believe how he found doing jobs such as moving heavy objects in place so easily, and dashing about from one place to the other…it made one feel quite dizzy after a while.
"Heavens, Tarzan – I can't watch you any longer!" the Englishwoman laughed merrily as she held a weary hand to her head. "I'm feeling tired just in doing so!" She took a moment to survey their work, meaning not to look at her husband's eyes as he was suppressing a grin. With a purified sigh, she began to work on lifting the last pile of books onto the shelf above her.
Flump. An enormous cloud of dust rose up from the stack and went flying directly into her face. She shut her eyes tightly from the cloud and a surprised gasp slipped out, before she released the books and coughed a little, wiping her eyes. She was blind for the moment, the dust had begun to sting and water her eyes.
"When…did we – we last dust those?" she managed to choke out, giggling.
As her vision started to become clearer, she felt Tarzan's hands around her arms, helpfully brushing down her clothes. He must have made his way over to her from the moment she made a reaction. At his support, she was able to open her eyes.
"Are you all right?" she heard Tarzan ask.
She nodded, holding back a laugh. Water dripped from the corners of her eyes and she wiped them with the back of her wrist, the smell of dust still wafting around her nose. "I'm fine," she mumbled. "I just wasn't expecting the sandstorm so soon."
She was cut off by Tarzan's laugh. Looking up at him, she couldn't tell whether it was from her joke, or the fact that he was staring at her and suddenly smiling, as if he found something endearingly amusing. The light caught in his eyes and made him appear swiftly handsome, especially when he smiled.
It only just appealed to Jane how filthy she was, covered in dust. She brushed herself down more, but couldn't take her eyes away from that grin before her. "Oh, yes – it's quite funny, isn't it?" she teased, smiling. "Whatever are you looking at?"
She felt Tarzan lift one of his strong fingers and put it against her cheek, as if pointing something out, only it began to stroke, as if delighting in the touch of her skin. "You have…dirt," he whispered out, touching her cheek. "Right here."
Jane smiled, trying to hold back a blush. "I know."
"And here," Tarzan continued, placing the finger now upon her forehead, where the ends of her hair had streaked it with marks. He stroked it there too, before taking this chance to search the rest of her face for another place for him to visit. He spotted one, at the brink of her nose, and pointed carefully. "And here."
Jane could only stare upwards into his eyes, her heart racing and her head spinning, though only not from dizziness this time. She smiled again, remembering how much she loved him…the one standing before her. She whispered out again, "I know."
This time though, Tarzan came to the final end, where his finger landed softly on Jane's pink lips and rested there for a moment, as if deciding what he should do. All that he managed were the same two words, deep and slow in his voice. "And here," he said.
Now at a loss for words, Jane could only smile. She found her hands moving from where they lay at her waist, travelling up her husband's shoulders and fastening around his neck, all the while gazing into his features. Her own eyes shut now, as she leant her head towards his own and found his lips carefully, his finger sliding off her face as he did the same.
They shared their love for a few seconds before parting, and staring back at the other with drooping eyelids and their hearts ablaze. They never grew tired of showing how they felt, it wasn't as if marriage had slowed down the excitement of being with one another…now it felt even stronger, as they had devoted their lives.
Leaning forward again, their lips touched for only a brief moment before the door bounced open, creaking on the chair-supported hinges and the gusting wind blowing in. Interrupted, they both turned their heads towards the door, noticing the figure that was now battling with shutting the entrance.
"Stupid – it never does whatcha want it to do!"
"Terk, let me help!" Tarzan called, breaking away from Jane and hurrying over to his friend's side, both of them pushing their hardest against the door. With Tarzan's help, it wasn't more of an effort, and the chair was made to hold in place now to keep it from flying open.
Terk circled away from the door with a whoop. "Phew! You guys should see the storm out there," she commented, her fur disarrayed from the wind. "It's picking up for miles, I just wanted to drop by and see how everything's hangin' back here! How's you doing?"
Tarzan smiled at Jane, trying not to laugh at Terk's appearance. "Um…good," he said.
"Ya mom's worried again, wanting to know how you're managing…oh, yeah – and I just had to get away from Tantor for a while, if you were there you would too – believe me…and, um…what happened to you?" she said all of this in one breath, her last sentence directed towards Jane, who was still coated with dust.
She giggled, dirt falling off her shoulders. "I – I, er…accident with the shelf."
Shrugging, Terk turned back to Tarzan. "So…it looks like you've got everything sorted, huh? Well, good for you! Y'know, what ya would have gotten from me if ya was still trying to hold out? Would ya, would ya? Huh? Huh?"
"Probably not."
"Good, 'cause you don't wanna know. Anyway, whatcha up to, before I came along? Anything boring? Must have been, huh? And I quote: 'before I came along…', give out any hints?" As she spoke, Tarzan and Jane shot a half-amused, half-embarrassed glance at one another, listening to Terk's question.
They, however, did not know that she was watching them.
"Oh! Oh, yuck! I hope I wasn't interrupting anything…" she groaned sarcastically, rolling her eyes in disgust and making gagging noises in the back of her throat. "Perfect timing, buddy…during the middle of a storm, away from the rest, thought I wasn't gonna show up and ruin it, right? Wrong!" She let out a chuckle right in his face, almost deafening him.
He surprisingly laughed, something that Jane wasn't expecting. She smiled anyway.
"What did I tell ya," Terk carried on, ignoring the chuckles that were coming from her friend. "Years ago, remember pal? About falling in luuurve and everything?"
Her words suddenly caught Tarzan's attention, though his laughter was clearly recognisable. "Terk…don't – don't!" he managed to get out, trying to sound serious but not being successful to hold back a grin.
Terk turned her face to Jane, as if telling her instead. "He was worried," she said.
Jane, who could not imagine Tarzan being worried at such a young age, or even considering the fact of falling in love as a child, found Terk's tale suddenly interesting. Brushing down her shirt, her eyes lit up with fascination. "Really?"
"No!" Tarzan objected.
"Of course ya were – don't argue! Ya were always saying…'what if that never happens to me? What if I never get to know what it feels like?'" As she spoke, she imitated a squeaky version of a supposed young Tarzan. "And it was always…"
"Terk…"
"It was always…d'you think they'll care how I look - '"
"Terk!" Tarzan almost snapped. He didn't really like the idea of Terk speaking about his insecurities, especially in front of Jane. Though, inside he had to agree with her, he remembered saying that to her in some days of his time, though for now…he only wanted to keep it as a memory. A forgotten memory.
He didn't like to think about it much…not now, when he had found love.
Terk suddenly looked sorry, as if only just realising that fact. She muttered a meek apology, claiming her 'big mouth' got out of control once more. "Sometimes even I can't hear myself!" she confessed, clapping a walloping hand on Tarzan's back out of friendliness.
Tarzan cast Jane a remorseful look out of guilt, but instead he found it was her eyes that held the sympathy. She looked as if she could cry, she felt so sorry for him. Brushing most of more of the dust off her clothes, and managing a weak smile, she simply whispered one word, which Tarzan's senses picked up immediately from Terk's side. "Later."
He grinned back. Later, that was right. They would talk about it later. Then he could tell her everything. She had told him the troubles of her own past, he could now tell his.
Their moment was again interrupted by another thunderous whoop from Terk, as she clapped her hands together loudly and looked about the tree house eagerly. "So!" she cried out, "Got any grub in this joint?"
Tarzan and Jane met eyes a final time as they began to get up for the door. A secretive smile was offered between them and the meaning was understood without words. Until later, the information heard this night would be completely confidential.
Until later, indeed. Tomorrow, it would be.
To be continued
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(A/N: Sorry about the long wait! I hope you like this chapter as much as the other one, and I hope for reviews to keep me going! This will continue, as you can tell at the end of this one, and it may carry on from there. Thanks!)
