AN: Hi all! I'm SO sorry that I've been away for so long. The only excuse that I have is that life gets in the way. A lot has happened (some good, some bad, some in between) and writing just didn't feel right at the moment. I didn't want to give you guys anything that wasn't 100% simply because I couldn't focus. When I logged back on recently and I saw the influx of favorites and follows and views I immediately felt so heart-warmed that I knew that it was about time that I got back to business. I love this fanfiction because it's been around for a good six years and it's been fun to write, rewrite, and revise. Thank you all for supporting it and I'm going to get back into the groove of writing and updating it. I hope you enjoy this chapter!
Fallon and Kelly had excused themselves to go back to their apartment and change into something more comfortable, and quickly wash up.
"Ugh, I feel so disgusting after everything that happened yesterday. I never want to step foot in another sewer again," Kelly had said. On the way there from the medical ward, she had said nothing to Fallon, nor had she shown any new or exciting emotion hinting at what had transpired between her and Adam. In fact, she acted as though nothing had changed. After quickly using wash basins to quickly clean their legs and arms they began to search trunks and drawers for clothes.
"Um, Kelly, what...exactly did my brother tell you?" Fallon asked, grabbing a new blouse and long khaki skirt and heading towards a changing screen. An awkward moment followed the question. Fallon rebuttled quickly. "I mean, if you don't want to tell me that's perfectly alright because it was between the two of you and it's none of my business-"
"Fallon!" Kelly interrupted. "You're rambling again."
Heat crept up Fallon's neck and face. "Yes, of course I am. So silly of me."
Kelly shook her head and looked at the clothes Fallon was holding. "I wouldn't wear a skirt on a rescue mission like this, Fal."
Fallon clutched the long skirt in her hands. "Well, what else would I wear? I don't own anything else."
Kelly turned and headed into her bedroom, threw open her dresser drawers and pulled out something. She threw them to Fallon. Unfolding the pressed khaki fabric, she stared down with horrified wide eyes. She held it up at arms length and let the two separated, yet connected pieces of fabric fall out full length.
"Kelly, these are pants..." Fallon managed to excrete from her throat.
"Exactly!" Kelly replied, closing the doors to her bedroom, leaving them open only an inch so she could still talk to Fallon.
"I can't possibly wear these!" Fallon protested.
"Yes. You can."
"I...just-it's not-" Fallon stuttered.
Kelly flung the doors open, having already changed into a clean white cotton blouse and some long khaki pants herself, slightly puffed at the hips as was fashionable, and wearing tall, knee-high brown boots.
"Fallon, we're going into the desert to fight an evil, powerful, immortal, mummy that was raised from the dead. Do you really think wearing a long skirt and heels is sensible?" Kelly challenged her best friend.
This left Fallon speechless, much to her annoyance. She had never worn pants a day in her life, nor did she have the intention of wearing them any time soon.
Kelly, picking up another pair of tall brown boots that were strewn across the kitchen floor and handing them to Fallon, she added with a wink, "Besides, Ardeth will think that you'll look like the cat's meow in them."
Fallon could not hold back a laugh. "NO! He absolutely will not! You are daft for thinking such a crude thing."
Kelly released a giggle. "Either way, you have to wear the pants. I'm not letting you out of this apartment unless you do."
Fallon let out a huff of surrender. But she didn't want to let Kelly off that easily. "Fine, but you're evading the question."
"What question?" Kelly laughed as she reached for the door handle of the front of the door of the apartment. Fallon straightened her shoulders.
"What you and Adam discussed together in the medical ward."
There was a single moment of silence between them as they stared at each other. "I'm gonna go check to see if Jonathon is outside with Rick."
"Oh no you don't-!"
Kelly slammed the door to the apartment after she slipped out into the hallway.
"You little cheat," Fallon finished under her breath.
Fallon appeared outside of the apartments of the Fort where Kelly, Rick, Jonathon, and Ardeth waited with the car, counting guns and ammo and whatnot. The fabric between her thighs and hugging her calves made her buckle her knees together hunch her shoulders forward so she could wring her arms out in front of her, hoping it would hide her. Though nothing could hide how red her face had become, even more apparent since the blue scarf was still in her hair from yesterday holding her hair back. The boots Kelly handed her were a little big, and she had to stuff them with extra socks, but that only made her toes feel scrunched together.
All heads simultaneously turned to look at her. She could barely look at the array of mixed faces they were giving her. It all made her want to crawl back inside and change immediately back into her long skirt and Mary-Jane heels too small for her feet.
"Look at the Sheba who just walked out!" Kelly whooped. Fallon rolled her eyes and gritted her teeth.
"Well, I never thought I'd see that in my day," Jonathon said.
"Are you comfortable, Fallon?" Rick asked, confused.
"OH!" Fallon shrieked. "Let's just go! Evy needs us, doesn't she?! You're all standing around gawking at me when we have something more important to be worrying about. I'm ashamed of all of you!" She stomped down to Jonathon's car, cursing and scolding under her breath the entire way.
"She's got a point, let's go," Rick agreed, getting into the front passenger seat of Jonathon's car.
Fallon opened the back passenger door and slid into the middle seat while Kelly jumped over the other back passenger door and bounced into the seat next to her. Fallon squeezed herself together as Ardeth slid into the other seat next to her, she couldn't bring herself to look at him. The only thing she could bring herself to look at was the fact that as she was squished between Kelly and Ardeth, her outer hips and thighs brushed against his. And there was no way she could adjust to rid herself of this face-warming distraction unless she asked Kelly to switch with her. And she knew full well that Kelly would not switch with her.
As they began to drive, Rick giving Jonathon directions as to where to go, a silence fell over the car. The sun was already emitting it's blaring midmorning heat, casting gold and orange light onto Cairo behind them as they drove out into the desert. The light was almost too bright, until they turned away from it to head even deeper into the desert.
Fallon wondered if Ardeth was just as uncomfortable as she was. It had been such a bizarre night. Oracles and mummies and mobs and tablets...and his uncle had died. She had apologized, there in the sewer. Though she knew that it wasn't exactly the best of places to offer sympathies. She wondered how he must be feeling. She turned her head to peek at his face through her peripheral vision. His face was stone, balanced, yet with that edge towards seriousness, and yet also deep in thought, she quickly noticed his fists clenched tensely on his lap. Fallon wondered what he was thinking about. His uncle? The Creature? Her maybe? Please, he had much more important things to think about than her. She turned her face away at her own rejection. Besides, she had thoughts of her own that she needed to be thinking about. The fact that Imhotep was after her unsettled her to no end, also the fact that he wanted to use her cousin in a ritual sacrifice to bring his dead lover back to life. And the whole Oracle thing...she lightly shook her head. She'd rather think about anything else than think about that. She still couldn't believe it.
But she wondered what Ardeth had to do with it? How did he know so much?
Fallon turned her head to look at him at this thought, but she found her eyes locked onto his. Nothing transpired in what seemed like the longest minute in the world. Fallon couldn't stop the creeping flush over her cheeks. Geez, she had to stop doing this around him! Right now, it was bad enough that she felt some odd connection to him, especially with all of the dreams they had been having, and him helping her learn about the Oracle; but on top of all of that and what had happened between them in the past several days, she was sitting there next to him feeling the most vulnerable while wearing pants and is almost pressed up against him while wearing them! How could things get worse?!
Ardeth, personally, had never seen a woman wear pants that tight before. Besides Kelly, of course, who, for someone reason, didn't phase him when she had come out of the apartment at Fort Bryon, nor did he exactly notice what she was wearing. However, the reaction was different having seen Fallon walk out in them. She stood out like a sore thumb, and he was not prepared to see her so...interestingly dressed. True, the women in the Medjai tribe would never dress that way, but he couldn't help but stare at Fallon and her legs as she tried to shield herself from everyone's eyes. How uncomfortable she looked, and he could feel it too, coming straight from the blush that colored her face. She did that a lot. And he noticed every single time. He didn't know what he wanted to do when he saw her standing there like that and marching to the car, the shape of her legs almost perfectly outlined in the khaki pants. He wanted to laugh at how irritated she was, he wanted to reach out and touch—No, stop, he had to tell himself, he didn't, but he truly did want to cry and shout to the top of his lungs...Even still, sitting so close next to her in the car as their hips touched, he had the very same urge to move his hand ever so slightly and brush his fingers over-
He had been clenching his fists together the entire time he had been in the car to prevent himself from ever doing such a thing. He wished he could bring his thoughts to another topic that was more important. And for a while he was able to. He thought about the Creature, and he thought about how when he returned to his people (if he returned to his people) he would have to tell them that his uncle is dead, he thought about the Oracle, and how Fallon needed to somehow learn how to use her power so that she may help conquer the Creature. Fallon...why did it immediately come back full circle to Fallon?
He could feel the tension seeping through her skin right next to him. He wondered if maybe she was just nervous about what had happened over the past couple of days, particularly yesterday, and that the Creature had a special use for her. He also wondered if maybe she was still uncomfortable about her manner of dress, which was clearly instigated by none other than Kelly, otherwise, he was sure, that she would have come back out in what he assumed was her usual attire, like that which she wore yesterday. And in the deep recesses of his mind, which he tried to pretend didn't exist, he wondered if she was also uncomfortable with him.
He could usually read Fallon's face like a book. She showed everything that she was thinking on her face. He slowly turned his head to cast a glance at her but only found himself staring into her eyes. And for once...he was too nervous himself to be able to figure out what her face read.
"I know I said this last night, but..." She began to say suddenly. "I'm truly sorry about your uncle. He was a great man who taught me well, and was a great influence on my life."
Ardeth swallowed, allowing himself to think about what she had said to him so out of the blue, and also allowing him to quickly think of something he could say as a reply. He was finally able to look away, managing to capture a breath. "Thank you. He fought honorably in the name of our people. I am proud to have called him my uncle."
She nodded slowly. "You seem to be taking it rather well."
"I will mourn with my people later. At present, there are more pressing matters." He swallowed hard again, knowing that on his mind was mostly Fallon, not the pressing matters that he needed to be thinking about. There will be plenty of time for that when it came.
"Yes, of course," Fallon sighed, turning her head down. He saw her eyes loom over how close their thighs were together, pressed against the other, and heat once again showed in her cheeks. Then she looked away.
Ardeth saw her hands clench into fists, much like his own were. Letting out a deep breath, Ardeth knew that this car ride was going to be a long one.
AN: Hi there! Thanks again for waiting so patiently for this one. It is a little more...deep in thought into the characters. For some reason I really wanted to write about Fallon wearing pants. I didn't exactly intend for this chapter to be all about the tension she and Ardeth felt about her wearing pants, but I wanted to get a little deeper into their inner feelings, both of them in a situation that is WAY out of their comfort zones. Please tell me what you think in the comments! Thanks everyone! Please Review, Follow, and Favorite!