Petunia 'Coop' Cooper (driveeveryroad) wrote in thefield, @ 2009-07-30 09:27:00 |
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Entry tags: | adnan, coop, z - 1st tribe - day 30 |
Are You Decent?
Who: Coop and Adnan
When: Early Evening
Where: 'Round the bend of the island at an ideal spot for washing and possible privacy.
What: Bathing and general clean-up
Rating: PG for a little nakedness and impure thoughts
Splashing out of the water, Coop picked her footing cautiously. The shore here was sandy but liberally peppered with clams and she'd already cut one toe on one of their serated shells. She had no intention of performing any accidental amputations, and definitely not where no one would hear her bellowed curses.
Not only were there thick reeds in this somewhat dune protected inlet, but there was a thicket of those strange bushes. She'd noticed when she hung her dress off of them to dry, along with the little scrap of a pair of black panties she'd arrived in, that the bushes were budding. Strange time of year to be blooming when everything else seemed to be reaching it's harvest time. Still, nothing in this place was normal or to be expected.
She'd carried the hulls of her soap pods with her, thinking to use them in a composting project she was beginning. She'd woven herself a basket from the long branches of the bushes and planned to fill it with as many food and leaf scraps as she could. Her hope was that after a season, she might have something better to garden with than the rough sand that seemed to make up the majority of the island. Egg shells, milk melon rinds, used soap pods and mint sticks she figured could all be put in. Animal bones as well, if she set the compost a ways away from camp. Composted vegetation plus a healthy shoveling of grazer poop just might do the trick. She knew Rowan had put aside plenty of seeds and planned to sit down with the woman one day soon and discuss a gardening plan of action.
She was fingering the hem of her dress to test whether it was dry enough to put on when she heard someone scuffing their way down the dune. With a quiet eep, she stepped into the bush thicket and pulled her mostly dry dress around her body like it was a towel. "Hello?" she called out.
After another day of being across the lake and chopping, Adnan was more than ready to clean himself up and collapse somewhere relatively isolated and just sleep. The weather had been good working weather, not too hot and windy, and the men helping him had accomplished a lot. The axe was a godsend, if one believed in that sort of thing, and it had sped things up more than he could've hoped. They still had a ton of work to do, but they were getting somewhere. He'd headed round the curve of the island, examining the blisters on his hands as he walked. He had plenty of soap pods in his pockets, and decided he would attempt to wash his jeans as well. If it left him in boxers for a day, so be it, but they were filthy. He would deal with it while it was still warm enough.
He hadn't even been thinking that the water might already be occupied, and he stopped halfway down the dune as a female voice reached his ears. "Hello?" he called back, sounding halfway surprised, then remembered himself. Adnan, neck warming up some, turned himself around to face the top of the dune. He hadn't seen anyone, but that didn't excuse being indecent. "I apolgoize, I didn't realize anyone else was down here," he added, the one word the woman had spoken not triggering voice recognition just yet. There were plenty of females around. He started to climb the dune again; there were other spots to bathe.
Hearing the familiar and reliable voice of the first person she'd really call a friend in this place, Coop's shoulders slumped in relief. At least it wasn't Kenneth or worse yet, Arlo. That would have been mortifying. Adnan was safe though, and she found she didn't mind him encroaching on her privacy in the least. After all, hadn't she thoroughly obliterated his own by chosing to use him as a pillow or sometimes even a mattress? "Oh, it's okay Adnan!" she piped up and peeked out from behind the tall bushes. "It's just me and I was mostly done anyways." Her dark hair was plastered and smoothed back from her face but the playful wind that had blown off of the prairie all day tossed a few drying strands in her face. Lake water ran down her face to spread dark spots on the damp dress but she held it firmly in place, well aware that her backside was open to the air.
When she said his name, he knew exactly who it was, and Adnan's dark head twisted around. He caught a glimpse of her and the way her dress seemed to be mostly on the bush she was behind and turned back immediately. Just because he was incredibly attracted to the woman didn't give him any right. Nevermind that she slept on him occasionally. "Ah ... I can leave you be if you need time to finish," he offered over his shoulder, dark eyes still thoroughly averted. He sounded a bit more flustered than he had initially. She'd said 'almost done', after all, and, well ... he wet his lips and waited for her answer, caught between hoping it was a dismissal and hoping it was an invitation to go down and ravish her on the sand. Which was ridiculous of him and he should be ashamed of, but there was something about that touseled black hair that begged for his fingers.
"Ah, well, I already had my swim." Coop was utterly distracted by chilly water beading down the groove of her spine. "I'm just waiting for my dress to be dry enough to put on." She looked down at the garment. "I could put it on now though, I think. It's windy, it'll dry fast." It was nice just to have it clean to be honest. Helping out in the tannery the day before had not left her only major garment smelling fragrant and wonderful. She was worried that the stench wouldn't come off but all she smelled now was the cucumbery scent of the soap pods and something pleasantly peppery from the bushes.
It wasn't a dismissal. And it meant that he would actually be going down there and stripping in front of her. Down to his boxers, at least, but those were revealing enough. Especially thinking about her dress not being on at the moment. Adnan squeezed his eyes shut for a second and rubbed the heel of his hand against one. He took a breath, reminded himself that he was an adult and so was she, and turned to head all the way back down to the water. He kept his eyes pointed mostly down, and smiled faintly toward where she was. "How's the water?" he asked, starting to pull the little sweet-smelling pods out of his pockets. He was sure he was a sight, with dried sweat staining his shirt and wood chips all over him.
With little curls of wood flakes in his dark hair, Adnan was tempting her magpie-like ability to poke and prod. Her mother used to call her a little primate when she was small. She'd be picking leaves out of her father's hair or flicking bugs off of her brother's clothes. She just had an irrepressibly urge to get close to people she cared about. "It's nice. A little cool but after working hard all day it'll be good. No one lost any fingers today?" she called over from the stand of bushes. She was more than aware he'd probably come down for some privacy but here they were, calling a slightly awkward conversation to each other from either side of a screen of vegetation.
Once he was in a spot that didn't seem immediately visible, Adnan stopped and dumped the soap pods into a little indentation in the sand. He tugged his shirt off and then the boots and jeans. "No, everyone's still intact," he called back to Coop, looking down in a considering manner at his boxers. They really needed to be cleaned as well, but that would leave him nothing to go back to camp in. His jeans were more filthy, however. It was a conundrum. He almost wished he hadn't given all his clothes away. But he should be grateful for what he had. After a second's though, he stripped off the cotton boxers and left them folded rather neatly on the sand. Moving quickly, he splashed into the lake water, soap pods and the first clothes to be washed in his hands. It was a bit cold, but kind of in a refreshing way. He got deep enough to crouch and be decent, then dunked his head under to come back up shaking the water off.
Spying her little cotton thong dangling from a branch, she snatched it. It was a little damp as well but it wouldn't kill her to pull it on. Mindful of her sandy feet, she stepped into it and snapped it into place with a bit of a shudder. "I can't believe you guys found that axe," she called, putting her back to the water and flapping the long red dress a bit to encourage it to shed a bit more of it's moisture. The sun would be going down soon enough and then she'd be bummed she was stuck in a cool and damp dress. And so would he, for that matter!
"Yeah, that was a stroke of good luck, wasn't it?" he called back from the water, still not really looking at her. As difficult as that was. He tried to focus on breaking one of the little pods open and working up a lather on his t-shirt as he just crouched there in the water. Clothes got clean first, then his body. And possibly she would be gone by then. He actually wouldn't mind floating for a bit before the sun went down. "It's really put a dent in our work, I'm very glad for it. It'll speed things up nicely." And he was just a fascinating conversationalist, wasn't he?
She wasn't doing much better and Coop was becoming aware of that fact. "Um, hey Adnan," she called back toward the water. "I'm going to let this dress dry a while longer." As she spoke, she hung it up. On topics such as these, Coop was always slow to grasp but she eventually dawned. There was something of a fascinating elephant in the room between herself and her friend. Maybe while they were both a little disadvantaged and alone, they could talk about it. "So I'm going to come back in to the water and cover up. If that's cool?" Would he mind? Would it balk him completely? She hoped not. She knew he had a lot of miles under his heels and she suspected he wasn't exactly innocent even if he was polite.
He had his back to her -- or the bare back of his shoulders, more like -- but Adnan tilted his head slightly before answering. "Of course," he said. "I mean ... I'm sure it's warmer in here if you don't have anything to cover up with." It was breezy, after all. He scrubbed his shirt a bit more, but he was listening to her as well as he could. It didn't balk him, at the very least. He'd had his fair share of lovers on this side of the world, in his wandering, but they had mostly been brief affairs. A day or two, maybe a week at most, before he was moving on, when he couldn't afford a roof. It wasn't a deception; most of them had been older than him, and lonely, and willing to trade a bit of this for a bit of that. It was survival. It had just been drilled into his brain at a very young age to give every woman he met the utmost respect and dignity in all matters even remotely sexual, and Coop was still mostly a stranger to him.
Coop, too, was used to short trysts with near-strangers. Hers were usually fueled by an exciting evening of fun at whatever roadhouse or truck stop she landed at. It was amazing how often you ran into the same people and so her partners often turned out to be the same guys just in different states. It wasn't something she did often but if someone struck as respectable, nice and fun, she'd extend an invitation.
Adnan had proven to be good fun to talk to and awfully hospitable with his very few belongings, crash space and person. Also, she was aware of his looks (very nice) and his eyes (lingering, from time to time) and his cultural differences were fascinating. All of these things lead up to one question for her. She waded into the water after wiggling out of her underwear again. She didn't even look in his direction as she passed him with a few feet to spare. She sunk down to keep the water level with her collar bone a little further out. "So Adnan, when are we going to find a way to go out on a date?" she asked him, cocking her head slightly and turning to give him a smile.
He caught a pale glimpse of her in his peripheral vision, and barely managed to look away until she was actually in the water. The question surprised him into looking, however, and though he'd gotten up close and personal with her shoulders and collarbones before, they never looked better. To his credit, he managed not to say something stupid, like repeating 'a date?' as if he hadn't heard her correctly. Instead a smile crossed his face that was completely unself-conscious and he looked down at his soapy shirt for a second. "As soon as you would like to, I suppose," he said, dark eyes moving back up to her. "Though I can't promise you anything fancy. I'm not exactly a man of means." It was on the unfunny side, but it was all he had at the moment.
Her nose wrinkled and she let slip the smallest of giggles. "That's ok. I like simple things anyways." She was a girl who was impressed with a walk and a talk. A few shared stories with genuine interest and exchange. Gifts that were made by hand and honest observations. "Maybe tomorrow we can have dinner away from everyone else?" she suggested. A fire on the beach and a chance to get to know one another after the day's work was done sounded nice. "Weather permitting." She offered him a smile as she slowly waved her arms back and forth under the surface of the lake, stirring up small waves.
When was the last time he'd been on a genuine date? Ever? Adnan couldn't exactly say that he had. Back home, before ... everything, it had been relatively unheard of. Most marriages were arranged, and the younger people were watched like hawks when they were together, to prevent impropriety. Anything you did on one side of the village got back to the other side before you could. And in the States ... he'd mostly been too broke or too on the move to date anyone. But a secluded type dinner ... he thought he could handle that. "It's a date then," he agreed with a smile back, already planning to cut out from the lumber-work early to arrange it. He threw a glance behind him. This spot was rather secluded, actually, and had a nice breeze going, right on the water. Maybe they'd do it here, nestled in a clear spot. "I'll find you when it's ready ...?" he suggested, looking at her again.
Coop nodded, "I think I'm going to cross the lake and help the girls harvest some of the grain. I won't be too far though." She, too, would slip away early and make sure she was scrubbed clean before dinner. She had the strangest notion of informing someone of where she would be and discarded it, nearly laughing at herself. For one thing, she was an adult and no one here could parent her. For another, she trusted Adnan. He'd been nothing if not polite. Ok, so maybe she'd have to steal a moment to tell Analiese but that wasn't exactly the same thing. She ducked her head back under the water, smoothing it down to her scalp once more before offering him another smile. "So I'll leave you alone to finish your bath," she said, maneuvering her way a little closer to the shore, still keeping all of the pertinent bits below sea level. It was one thing to be bold, like getting back in to the water with him. It was another thing to flash him deliberately. They still had to sleep under the cart tonight, after all.
He was a little surprised that she was leaving already, and it made him halfway wonder if the date idea had been her goal all along. Not that he minded her style. "I'll see you a little while later, then," he said, sounding a bit like he was looking forward to that. Because he was. He turned his back to her again so she could get out without showing him anything he really wanted to see. He went about rinsing his shirt out thoroughly, pulling it up out of the water to wring it out some, then dunking again. He was listening to her once more, however, both trying to imagine what she would look like emerging from the water, and trying not to.
She didn't hurry on her way. In fact, she kept her eyes on this tilt of his broad shoulders as she slowly made for shore. "You'll see me," she said, a smile on her voice. The date had been her main motive for coming into the water. Sure, her dress needed a few more minutes on the bush but she could have waited in the seclusion of that thicket. No, it had been much more rewarding to have him acknowledge his interest. Idly she wondered if maybe she shouldn't curl up with Analiese tonight rather than her future date. "Be careful out here alone." The place was still dangerous, for sure.
"Be careful going back," he called back to her, only halfway turning his head over his shoulder. Not thinking about the danger that was present at all, he was wondering if she would sleep under the cart on him tonight. And if so, if he could get any sleep of his own. His body was exhausted, worn out by working hard two days in a row, and not looking forward to a third, but now there was something even more enticing about the woman. Something that might keep him up if her slim frame was draped over his all night. A date ... he would have to think on ways to make it actually seem like one. They were thoughts that would keep him occupied while he bathed, at least.