Rinsing In The Sun

[Aquarius Aziel Feng]

Tag; Open

Today had been a pleasant day, so far. Things had been really quiet, but warm and peaceful. Cars hadn’t been running, adults weren’t yelling, and the children were off giggling somewhere. There weren’t any birds, though, at least close to the creek. The sound of birds singing cheerfully in the morning had become a very rare sound by now, only occurring at random times. A naked boy was laying on the bank, eyes shut and hands poised behind his head in a relaxing pose, allowing the early morning sunlight to soak on him. He loved to sunbathe on days like today, and would definitely take advantage of it whenever one came along, since it had been storming quite a lot lately. He took in a long, deep breath, the scent of morning dew filling up his nostrils. He smiled, pleased with how the morning was coming along so far.

He finally sat up and rubbed his eyes, opening them and then having to shut them again several times to get adjusted to the brightness of the scene. He gave out a long yawn and stretched as far as he would go, then looked across the bank towards the rushing water. It seemed like a good time to take a shower, so he stood up, brushed the sand off, and then picked up a bar of soap off his shorts, which he had neatly folded upon a red shirt over a small desk. He wouldn’t ever leave them on the ground where ants could get to them, but would keep the soap safe when it could rain. Plus, he loved how sometimes having the soap upon the clothes would keep them smelling fresh. He wouldn’t really know how to do laundry, and besides, everyone seemed to think that the girls were supposed to do it.

Moments later, he would’ve been waist-deep in the creek, already soaking wet all over and brushing suds of soap upon his torso. He then headed dove under the water to wet his hair some more before making a lather of suds on his open palms by rubbing his hands together. Scrubbing the suds through his hair now, he glanced around. He thought he had heard movement along the sand, but didn’t see anyone and basically shrugged it off before diving underwater again. When he wasn’t sure if all the soap had gone out of his hair, he would then sit down and rest his head back, letting the rushing water push out any excess soap from his hair. Now he had looked back at the bank again. There was definitely someone there, he was sure he had heard giggling.

[Sly Cooper]

After a days work the twins would often times stroll along places not often occupied, but it was hard to find placed that weren’t forbidden. They liked to walk along the creek, and sometimes they would just sit there till the day was through, sometimes even longer. Although they acted as though nothing faced them, or even remotely touched them, it was just a face they put on for all the other Gatlin children. The truth was Jude and Joan like to soak up as much alone time, which was more like together time, as they could.

They had always been strangely close, but since the purging they had become closer. It was the reasoning for their wondering off. The truth was, they didn’t just love each other in a sibling way, no. But some things are better left unknown to even the smallest of publics.

So, after then hunting of the blue woman was over, after Joan’s outbursts of jealousy, and then become quite bored of all the talk of summoning dragons and all the other childish fantasies, they walked along the side of the stream. They walked so close together that they almost messed with each other’s balance, and their hands were linked in between. Too caught up in the presence of the other, it came to a huge surprise to see a young boy in the water. Jude jolted away from his sister, and Joan yelp like a puppy getting it’s tail stepped on.

[Aquarius Aziel Feng]

He was right, there was indeed someone else there, or rather, were two other people there. They seemed to be about his age, maybe even older, and appeared to be quite close, as they were apparently too immersed with each other. He chuckled, glad to see that at some of the others around here could get along well. He couldn’t say the same for the rest of them, those who always seemed to fight among each other to try and show who was the strongest, smartest, or fastest. He could care less about that right now, as it seemed the twins had seen him and then split up. He smiled kindly and at first pondered about leaving the water in case the twins might want their privacy. But then he thought otherwise, remembering that today was such a pleasant day, and instead of leaving them alone, he would want to spend time with them. After all, you needed friends in a place like this. Even if it was under certain circumstances.

“C’mon in,” the boy said coolly with a smirk. “The water’s great. I was just taking a bath, though,” he shrugged before diving underwater again. Once he had broke through the surface and had his eyes on the twins, he would continue to speak. “But I wouldn’t mind swimming around for a bit if you two wouldn’t mind.” He wiped the water off his face, gasping for a little air although he didn’t need much, and then dove under again, this time swimming to the shore. He stayed in the water as he broke through the surface once more, kneeling in the sand and chuckling as he watched the newcomers. “Well? Going for a swim?” Whether they decided to oblige or not, he wouldn’t really care. He loved the water, he would stay in it longer if he wanted to, which was partially what he was intending to do. But swimming alone wasn’t always that much fun.

[Sly Cooper]

Joan, being the way she was, pushed aside the incident coolly, acting as though nothing had happened. "I don't know that I should get my only dress wet, but I suppose I could dip my feet in." She brushed stray blond hairs out of her face, then sat down to take her shoes off. She tossed them behind her and gazed up at her brother. She tilted her head to gesture that he say or do something.

Jude brushed his sleeve an then looked around, then at his sister, then at the boy. "I guess a dip sounds-- alright." He unbuttoned his shirt, then pulled it off. "Hey watch this for me sis." He threw the navy blue dress top so it landed on her head, then slipped out of his shoes before promptly jumping in the cool water. His head disappeared underneath briefly. The water splashed up off the shore and splashed his sister, as she waited for him to resurface. He gasped for air as he did come back up then shook his head, drying off like a dog, and slicked his platinum hair back.

Jude's dark eyes then focused on Aziel "So, you come and play here often kid? Because Joan and I do, and I don't ever recall running into you before. Then again our favorite time to come out is night. You must be one of those day people." He didn't mean for it to sound like an interrogation, but it seemed to come out that way. "Ah, you young'uns always look like you're having so much fun, even when Isaac makes you work."

"Jude!" Joan snapped. "Don't be harsh. The kid didn't do anything!"

He shrugged her off. "I wasn't. I was just sayin' I wish I could always have that much fun." He rolled his eyes, then focused back at the boy, "So, what's the name again? It starts with an A or an F or something like that. You'll have to forgive me. I'm terrible with names."

"A and F aren't anything alike." Joan giggled, playing with the buttons on her brother's shirt.

Jude splashed her playfully, "Oh shut it."

[Aquarius Aziel Feng]

He smirked coolly as the teenage girl spoke, and then simply shrugged it off as if her statement was nothing more than a needle in a haystack. “Well, you can always take off your dress, it’s not a big deal if you go skinny dipping.” He chuckled as the boy started to speak in turn, therefore averting his gaze to the teenage male unbuttoning his own shirt. “You can’t not go swimming on such a beautiful day like today, after all.” With that, he dove underwater and headed toward the deeper end where when he would stand up only his head and shoulders would be seen above the surface. That was as deep as it would go, of course, at least in this particular part of the creek that the boy had come to be familiar with.

“I sleep here, or rather, live here sometime,” said the boy when the other boy had approached. By now he knew the girl’s name was Joan, having listened to their conversation, but he wasn’t really familiar with anyone’s faces unless he had worked with them plenty of times before. Of course, these twins were new faces to him, but he was sure he had heard about them before several times. “You probably don’t see me laying there on the bank at night since it does get a bit dark around here, or maybe it’s just that you don’t come to this very spot in particular?” He shrugged quizzically, but the boy did have a point. He wasn’t really bothered with being asked so many questions at once, it meant the older male was trying to get to know him more.

“I don’t even work that much, I mostly carry water to the others, among other things.” He shrugged again, before attempting to lay on his back so that he would be floating. It would be pretty obvious at this point the boy wasn’t wearing anything, nor did he seem so concerned about it. It would actually also be obvious that the young boy was in pretty good shape. He really didn’t care right now, as he was simply relaxing on a nice day. He didn’t have to work today, as far as he knew. By now, he had heard Joan calling out her brother’s name while snapping at him. So now he knew both their names, and then returned his full, undivided attention to the twins as he stood back up, letting his feet hit the muddy bottom of the creek. “You could, what do you guys do to work? I mean, you could always come here after you’re done working or something.” Now it was time for him to introduce himself. “You can call me Feng. It’s my last name.” He giggled a bit when Joan had made her comical statement, and watched as Jude had splashed her.

[Sly Cooper]

Joan got a look of deep thought stretched across her face. Admittedly, it wasn't a very attractive look. Feng obviously didn't see anything wrong with the idea of being naked, as he mentioned skinny dipping and didn't burst into laughter when saying so. And her brother has seen her naked plenty of times, so it wouldn't be unusual. "Well, Jude and I go down father, where it's just on the border of Gatlin. It's more secluded there. You know, less people."

"Also," Jude interrupted, "It's deeper there too." He rubbed his butt where it hit rocks at the bottom of the creek.

Joan stood up and unbuttoned the front of her dress ready to peal it off. "My brother and I go down there to 'skinny dip'." She threw it to the ground where Jude's shirt and shoes both lay. "It's one of those things you best not get caught doing. It's not approved of in the least bit."

Jude stared as the girl stood in her underclothes, tieing her hair back with a string she always had wrapped around her wrist. "You're seriously stripping-- with a kid here."

She smirked, stepping down into the water. "You heard Feng, it's too good a day not to go swimming."

[Aquarius Aziel Feng]

He shrugged at the girl’s comment. “I haven’t really gone all over the creek yet, maybe I‘ve covered at least a mile, or half a mile.” He had to stifle a giggle at Jude’s comment. “Well, at least the rocks aren’t so sharp. This is also where you guys get your drinking water from, so.” He looked across in Joan’s direction and noticed how she had started stripping off her clothes while she was talking. It didn’t bother him much, as he was pretty much used to it, what with his family being nudists and all. He shrugged, though, about being secretive. “I don’t see anything wrong with being naked, and I don’t think most of the others do, either. I can understand them being shy about it…”

Just then, he would splash at Jude, giggling a bit. “Jude, I’m used to it, it’s not like I’m going to puke.” Normally, the boy wouldn’t be talking to the twins, as they were still strangers to him whether he knew their names or not. But he wanted new friends, and well, what better way to draw them into the water and to build a friendship than to talk. He just had to make sure he didn’t talk too much. “And, your sister’s got a point, man. Too good not to go swimming, and she doesn’t want to get her dress wet, so skinny dipping, best solution for it all. What’s the big deal about being in the buff, anyway?” He dove underwater and then grabbed a shiny key that he had just happened to see. Breaking through the surface, he tossed it at his own pile of clothes. “I like collecting keys…” He said, feeling like he had to explain.

[Sly Cooper]

“If you haven’t noticed most of the other Gatlin children are very conservative.” Jude came close to his sister.

“It’s an unspoken law that we are all dressed properly,” she watched her brother intensely, with en eyebrow raised. Jude was up to something and she knew it. “I hate how strictly we have to dress.” Suddenly her tone changed “What are you doing?”

“Oh stop being so paranoid.” Jude grinned mischievously. “See, she likes to dress fashionably, which she hasn’t since the purging. She likes having some wicked style that the other girls can’t compete with.” He said it in almost a mocking tone, before placing his hands on each of her shoulders, his grin stretching even farther across his face. “Honestly, I’d go without if I could.”

Eyes widened, Joan began to scream out, “No! No! No!” She clenched to her brothers waist as he pushed her down, dunking her head in the water. Her arms flailed around in the air and her fair skin was covered in goose bumps. After she was let go of she began to screech, “What is your problem?”

“Well—“he bit his lower lip, holding back laughter, “I knew you wouldn’t get very wet if I didn’t push you along. I mean honestly,” he turned away from the girl and faced Feng. “I have a huge ring of keys back home if you’re interested.” Joan threw herself on his back with her arms thrown over his shoulders. She tried to push him down, but he was stronger than her, naturally, so she couldn’t outweigh him. Instead she gave up and rested her head on him, closing her eyes. She soaked up his warmth and his being and just listened to his voice echoing through his body when he spoke to the other boy. “I’m not sure what most of the keys are to, other than they used to belong to things on our family’s farm. I know there’s a little one that belongs to the chicken coop.”

[Aquarius Aziel Feng]

He shrugged but smiled kindly at the teenage male. “Well, I can understand that, people being conservative. If you look at it this way, you wouldn’t have to worry about getting your clothes dirty so much.” It would then be clear that the boy tended to be a neat freak when it came to cleaning and whatnot. “I try to keep everything clean, you know? Bit of a hard time around here every now and then but if it gets done, it gets done.” With a gentle smile, he had dove underwater again only to hear Joan’s voice upon resurfacing.

“An unspoken law? I wouldn’t bet on that. But, hmm, whatever rocks your boat. I always take my clothes off unless I’m working, and even then that’s not always. It’s only at important times, like the, um, rituals, I think, that I even wear my shirt and shorts.” He shrugged, “I try not to wear them so much because I don’t want to ruin them. My shorts are already messed up,” he said with a disappointed smile on his face. “But eh, things happen for a reason.” He glanced toward the twins, noticing something mischievous about Jude.

It seemed like he was picking on his sister, and so the little boy smirked. It was always fun to see someone teasing another, and even then more fun if he could join in, which he wouldn’t of course. He never tended to pick on people when he had just met them. “You mean you would go without clothes? Or her?” He asked just as he dunked her into the water, and he had no choice but to burst out laughing. He tripped over his foot and splashed into the water himself when he had to double over. The look on Joan’s face was enough to send him off, but it was when Jude had basically tortured her for the sheer fun of it that got him to start laughing. Ah, it did make him think a bit about his older sister, but then he stopped laughing and tried to change the subject by focusing on the keys.

Well, of course, upon hearing about there being a huge ring of keys would be enough to draw in his full attention at a hundred percent, and so calmly but eagerly he started asking questions about the keys and blabbering about his own collection. “Really?! How big are the keys? How small? How many are there? Are they gold? Silver? Bronze? Do they have those little pictures on the huge part, you know, where you could put it on the ring? I hope they would fit into my box. I mean, I got really hundreds of them, and I’m not lying.” He started whining, prepared to beg if he had to as he clasped his hands together and looked at Jude with the expression of a sad puppy’s face across his visage. “Jude, please let me have those keys. I will do anything.” He was quite serious.

[Sly Cooper]

Jude raised an eyebrow. He could have the kid do anything but it wasn't in his true nature, despite how he would act in the presence of the general public of Gatlin. "Naw, you can have the whole ring if you want. No requirements. They serve no purpose now." He kissed his sisters arm before sitting her down. "Some of the keys are bronze and silver, but most of them are gold. Most of them are skeleton keys because we lived in an old house. But the best key was this giant key we had for turning the generator for our family's barn."

Joan sat down in the water, figuring that she was already wet, "It looks like a giant wind for a toy. I don't think it's much of a key." She wrapped her thin hands around her brothers leg, then pulled till he fell backward.

"Ow!" Jude rubbed his butt under the water then continued. "We even have some small keys for diaries, suitcases, cabinets, and lockers. You name it we have a key for it." He turned to look at his sister. Her dark eyes glistened in the light, and her platinum hair looked white as the sun shone through it. "I think Joan should run around naked all the time." He was joking around with her. "Then should couldn't complain about how badly she was dressed any more." He chuckled and she smaked him lightly. "No, when I said I'd rather go without, i was talking about me going without clothes. They tug funny and cling when it gets hot. And you have to worry about cleaning them."

"Actually," Joan splashed the teen aged boy playfully then Feng. "He has a habit of running around that way when he thinks no one is looking. And he certainly sleeps that way."

[Aquarius Aziel Feng]

He was more happy than feeling uncomfortable, after noticing Jude’s kissing of his sister’s arm, for his mind was already set on the fact that he was getting free keys. With a wide grin across his face, he had actually hopped across the water and wrapped his arms tightly around Jude to show his immense gratitude. “Thanks!” He exclaimed before sitting down in the water and crossing his legs. He was going to sit calmly now so he could talk to the twins and take in every word that they were saying about the keys. Large, small, various sizes, and whatever went to whatever. He shrugged with a disappointed smile to agree with Jude’s statement about the keys not having much purposes now. It actually seemed that the car keys wouldn’t be useful any time soon, as the older teens, now long gone, had taken parts from most of the cars and scattered them all over the small town. After hearing some more about them, he couldn’t wait to see them, but for now he was more than content staying here and speaking with new friends.

He giggled when Jude had fell down, of course, now that Joan had her revenge. “You two seem to get along great.” He smiled a bit, then glanced at Jude as he spoke again about running around naked. Or rather, mentioned his thoughts about his sister. He simply shrugged at the comment and said to Jude, “That’s one reason why I go naked sometime, just so people can’t tell me how bad my clothes are or whatever. If she’s worried about what people might say about her clothes, I think she’s okay. It may be just one dress, but it’s better than being naked in front of everyone, right?” He giggled a bit when she had smacked her brother. Then he nodded at Jude’s explanation. “Yeah, that, too. It wasn’t really hot this morning, but then again it gets hot later. I don’t wear my clothes much so that I don’t have to clean them so much.” He smiled as if he was proud of that.

He snickered a bit when Joan had made her own comment. “He runs around naked? I would be surprised, it looks like Jude's a scaredy-cat to me,” said the young boy eyeing the teenage male’s shorts. “As for the sleeping part, I do that every single night, honestly. So, for me, it’s not a really big deal. I’m pretty used to it.” He shrugged it off, though, he felt he was making them feel awkward. “I’m sorry if I’m making you two feel awkward about this whole nudity stuff. Actually, if it will make you feel any better I could go put my shorts on?” He smiled, trying to be nice and make the situation comfortable for everyone. “I was actually just taking a bath when you came along, but honestly I don’t feel like I want to stop swimming any time soon,” He added with a giggle.

[Sly Cooper]

"Hey," Jude shrugged, "if you want to be naked, I say, by all means, be naked."

Joan rolled her eyes, "Well, no point in being embarrassed about being naked when you look good." Then she rested her head on her brother's shoulder. "And I know I look good."

Jude ignored her and went on. "What else interests you kid." He made it a habit to call anyone under the age of ten 'kid'. "I mean I know that a lot of kids like to sing or color or play games. And I know Malachai says we're not aloud to-- however, I think that these are the things in life that keep us living." He peered down into the water intensely to see if he could see any fish or crawdads. "I mean if all you do is work, then you can't enjoy life much. And then you don't live to be happy. And let's face it, that's why we live. We live to experience the good things." He stuck his hand in the water, then when he pulled it out there was a crayfish in between two of his fingers. It had it's claws in the air trying to look threatening.

Joan smiled gently, more gentle than the expression she usually tried to portray on her face. Her brother was her's. He was always there. They were born together, and in less than three years they would die together. He smile turned into a frown. She wasn't really ready to go. "It's true. That's why Jude and I come here all the time to have fun."

[Aquarius Aziel Feng]

The boy had been about to get up and get going for his shorts when Jude had said that. In a split second of hesitation he then sat back down with a slight shrug. “Well, if it doesn’t bother you so much, I guess it’s all good, then.” He chuckled at Joan, “If you were talking about how I look, thanks. I got six-pack abs,” He squeezed his stomach to show them, and then even flexed more of his muscles as much as he could. He was usually the kind of boy that loved to show off his muscles whenever he would get the opportunity to do so, but then he returned back to normal, if one could call it that.

He nodded after hearing Jude’s long blabbering comment. “Yeah, we got to have fun somehow, got to be free. All work and no play makes one a dull person.” He spotted the crawfish in Jude’s hand and smirked. “I used to play with those things a while back, but I got bored with them. They never do anything but lay around.” He shrugged and chuckled. “I thought about getting a monkey sometime. But there’s not a single monkey around here in Gatlin. Which sucks donkey butt.” He shrugged. “So how old are you two? I’m ten.” He would’ve held up fingers but because he didn’t know how to read he didn’t exactly know math nor how to count either. That would explain how he emphasized about having so many keys when he really had about half of a hundred in the box. But to him, it seemed like he had them in the hundreds.

“To answer your question,” He started up again just realizing he had been asked such a question, “I like working on cars and working out. I love martial arts, too. I also have a collection of movies about martial arts, too.” At once he stood up, brushing off the mud from his rear, and then headed to the dry sand. “Watch,” he said sharply to the others as if it was a command, and indeed he felt like they needed to watch more than anything in the world. He wanted their full attention. For a moment, he positioned himself, stretching out his arms and legs and arching out his back a bit, then pulled a backward somersault in midair before landing neatly on his own two feet. Then he had another move, where he would perform a kick by twisting around in midair. He nearly fell but regained his balance at once. Without warning, he ran towards the twins, and since they were sitting down, he had managed to leap over their heads back into the water, causing a large splash. When he had broke through the surface, he smirked at them. He had actually meant to splash them! He didn’t understand why Jude would emphasize the part about having fun here, so simply shrugged it off.

[Sly Cooper]

Jude clapped and Joan joined him, "Nice," he began. "I can't say I know how to do anything that takes that much coordination. I'm not clumsy, no, but I can't do anything fancy." He dropped the crayfish back in the creek to pat Feng on the head. "Got a lot of skill there. Bet you can't watch the tapes any more, huh? Well, you could but you can't get caught."

"Well, I miss watching the old TV shows." Joan let out a heavy sigh then buried her face in the soft skin on her brother's shoulder. "Or we would get up and watch cartoons together on Saturday."

Jude smiled sweetly, "We would get up before the sun, and get a huge bowl of cereal and two spoons. Then we would sit on the rug in the middle of the living room. All we had was a black and white TV." His feature loosened up as he reminisce. His eyes went out of focus and his expression was very childish.

"He ate most of the cereal on his own. We would watch The Flintstones, Scooby Doo, Acme Cartoons, Wacky Racers-- " Joan finished for her brother then pulled her head up off of him. "Did you used to watch cartoons? Or are you a one genre kind of boy?" She went back to clinging on to Jude. She rested her chin on him and stared at Feng. He was cute, a little strange, but she liked strange. Strange was more interesting than normal. Then again it could be said Gatlin was full of weirdos. "Actually, I'll bet most of the children do things that they aren't supposed to. How can they not. If there was one thing I learned from watching TV is that people do things that are frowned upon when others aren't watching." She giggled.

[Aquarius Aziel Feng]

He shrugged, “Well, if you practice, you get better. I still can’t do it right even today, and I’ve been practicing it for days.” He was gently patted on the head, as if he was a dog. He put it aside, though, it was nice to have someone older to show off to. “I haven’t been watching any of them lately but they are in the box with my keys so they don’t get messed up. If I wanted to watch them I just find a working TV and use the VCR.” He wouldn’t dare say how he had issues finding the right button to play or pause, of course. He felt, oddly, that if they knew he couldn’t read, they would make fun of him or call him stupid, and he wasn’t really in the mood for that. Being called stupid was never a nice thing, but being called nice, as in cool, was an awesome feeling. Especially when it was teenagers using that particular word.

The twins started talking about watching old TV shows, or cartoons. Now, being a kid, the boy would’ve understood cartoons. He would’ve been watching them endlessly while his parents would be sleeping, until his big sister would’ve snuck into the living room and flipped the channels, to the boy’s dismay. However, because he would rather play outside than to lay around on the floor watching drawings come to life, he hadn’t really watched a lot of cartoons. The only one that had ever caught his full attention would’ve been the Scooby-Doo cartoons, which was one of the cartoons Joan brought up. He smiled a bit at that, pleased to know that there was another Scooby-Doo fan, or two. “Ruh-roh!”, the boy giggled.

He shrugged, not understanding what Joan had meant by being one-genre. He had noticed just how awkwardly close Jude and Joan were to each other by now, but he had simply put it off as twins being that way. He had never actually met twins before, so maybe this was the way they would often act around each other. He had always heard that twins were very, very close, so he wasn’t going to say anything. Hell, it wasn’t his place to judge them, he wasn’t going to do that to them. Even though Joan was judging him a bit by considering he was a weirdo, or strange. Of course, he wouldn’t know she was thinking just that, since it was only her thought and no one else’s. He shrugged again at her comment. “I bet it, too. I don’t think anyone’s not done what they’re not supposed to do, I think pretty much everyone has done something they shouldn’t have. If no one’s watching them do it, good for them, I guess.”