Rinsing In The Sun

[Sly Cooper]

“Weird is not the word that covers it,” Jude was being smart. His sister messed up his tuft of blond, wet hair.

“Everyone is weird, some are just better at hiding it. I assure you.” After the two were done with their wrestling, Jude sat up and Joan rested on him. He was warm—and wet. She shivered a little so the warmth he provided was pleasant. She watched the young lad more closely than her wild brother did. She noticed the he couldn’t reach his back, but decided against trying to help him since she knew he wouldn’t like that. She just giggled to herself as the boy went on to say that he didn’t need to bathe because he already had.

“Awesome! He’s done!” Jude stud up very quickly and his sister who was using him for support fell because she wasn’t expecting it. She glared at him for a moment then let it go. She loved how untamed he could be. “Now we can do some swimming!”

[Aquarius Aziel Feng]

He simply smirked at them, having bent his knees so that the water would be up to his shoulders. He picked up the bar of soap, though, and muttered under his breath as he saw that he couldn’t quite wash his hair on his own. “Ugh. If either one of you won’t mind, you can maybe help me wash my hair?” He said, giving them an awkward look, as if to try and say that it could be embarrassing, but then again he did like having his hair clean and smelling like it, too. He watched as Jude suddenly stood up, and burst out laughing at Joan’s unfortunate laugh, so hard that he almost fell back into the water himself.

He would toss the soap up hoping that one of the twins would catch it in time before it could be lost in the creek for good. Although they could see most of the bottom fairly well, he didn’t want the soap getting too much water in it that it couldn’t be used again, so he was biting his bottom lip but had actually ducked under the water after tossing the soap. He was swimming quickly, using his feet for support, across the bed towards Jude, and upon reaching him he would most likely wrap his good arm around Jude’s thighs and try to lift him up to the best of his ability in an attempt to tackle the poor fellow.

[Sly Cooper]

Jude quickly caught the soap, and then looked for Feng. He saw a blob in the water coming closer, so he prepared himself, when he was grabbed by the thigh, and lifted. He let himself fall backward, because ultimately it seemed safer than trying to fight it then falling the wrong way and hitting something—like his sister. Afterward he patted the boy on the head. “Good little prankster. You got it kid. Maybe you will be my mini. My kin?” He looked at his sister for the proper word. She shrugged. “So anyway, you want some help with washing your hair.” He stood back up and got the bar of soap ready, and waited for Feng.

[Aquarius Aziel Feng]

He grinned mischievously at the twins. But he was truly happy that Jude had caught the soap in time, and upon hearing his comment about the boy wanting some help, he pondered, hesitating for a brief moment. “Hmm… Sure.” He shrugged. “Just make it fast then we can, um, hang out.” He grinned. He wasn’t going to be so immature by saying the forbidden word for boys his age, which was “play”. Of course, he could use it if he was referring to a show, something from the theater, but to refer to it as hanging out, spending time together, chilling with friends, whatever you could think of, he wouldn’t dare use that particular term.

“I bet I can kick your ass, Jude,” he smirked as he stood close behind but with his back to the teenager. He had folded his arms and had already shut his eyes so that the soap wouldn’t damage his eyes. “Be careful with my hair, it’s one of the things that make me very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very…” He panted, tired of the many, many very’s, and then added at the end, “Adorably adorable.” He grinned, an innocent grin to cover his mischievous expression.

[Sly Cooper]

“Hang out” Jude muttered under his breath, on the contrast, he didn’t understand why it is people stopped use the word play. You could decorate and dress it up anyway you want, it was still the same thing—it was playing. “Right—come here. I’m scrubbing that head of yours.” He, despite sounding like he was going to hold the boy down and scrub his head so hard he would be permanently bald, he was gentle about it. Within a few minutes he stopped, “alright kid, time to rinse up.”

“Do you feel better now that you’re clean,” Joan shivered in the water. She was cold but wouldn’t admit it. “I know I feel better clean, but boys—“ She shot a look at Jude, “They seem to like to run around dirty.” She wrapped her arms around herself and curled up as much as she could in the water. Despite the water making her cold, getting out would be colder.

[Aquarius Aziel Feng]

Feng was a little reluctant at first since Jude had basically sounded like he was going to be harsh on the boy’s hair. But then after the scrubbing had started he found it to be gentle and so started to trust his older brother once more. He kept his eyes closed, his mouth shut tight, and breathed in and out carefully as to not inhale any of the suds rolling down his face. When Jude had announced that it was time for a rinse, he quickly ducked down underwater, being careful with his wrist, and shook his head back and forth as the weak current rushed and rinsed through his hair. The tide was starting to rise by now but it was rising slowly so they would’ve had time.

He nodded at Joan. “Yup,” yelped the child as he smirked at them with a light chuckle from his throat. “I always feel better when I’m clean, but if I could, I would definitely run around dirty all week! I just don’t like the smell when someone stinks.” He shrugged. “But hey, if I could be caked in mud, it’s awesome when it dries up on you and you turn into the mud monster! Roar!” He held up his good arm and made his fingers claw-like as he tried to frighten his sister. He burst out giggling after that.

[Sly Cooper]

“Jude does run around with mud caked on—a lot.” Although at times she would be annoyed with his immaturity, she also admired it. There were times when she had wished she wasn’t the practical one, that she could be the fun one.

“I sure do! And it’s lots of fun. And when it dries I can peel it off. Kinda like how if you get sun burn after working in the field and then it starts to peel. I like to see how big of a piece of skin I can peel off.”

On the other hand, her twin could be rather disgusting at times. She always figured it was part of being a boy, but she would still make faces nonetheless. “I don’t know why you do that. Bun then again I don’t know why you do most of what you do.”

Jude noticed how his sister was quaking in the cold, and that her lips started turning blue. He came over and sat next to her and embraced her tightly, trying to keep her warm. Feng made the claw at her, but she was too busy being cold to care, but Jude giggled along with the boy. “I want to be the sludge monster from the depths of—some lock—“

[Aquarius Aziel Feng]

He made a face of disgust at his brother but didn’t say anything else. He would duck under the water now and disappear long enough to sneak up behind the twins. Once he was in the right position, he would then lunge out of the water roaring at them. By now, he had noticed that Joan was shivering, and felt bad that he had basically dragged her out here. Of course, it wasn’t really getting dark yet, but if she was getting cold he didn’t want her to get sick. “It’s not really cold,” the boy muttered, “But I don’t want you to get sick.” He smiled kindly and then offered her a hand to help her across the creek. “Let’s go back to the attic. It’s warm in there.”

He would then go and grab his clothes, being careful not to get them in the water again as he held them over his head, crossing the creek back to the side where the cornfield was. Now that he was on the shore, he realized he would have to be careful walking back to the attic and not to get caught naked with the twins because people could get the wrong idea. Although many knew of his being a nudist, they didn’t know his name nor that he was now the twins’ little brother. But he simply shrugged it off as he tucked the wet clothes behind his good arm, realizing that they could then offer that kind of shelter he was concerned about. Plus, they could always say that he fell into the water or something. He looked up at the sky and saw a figment of the moon starting to appear. “Yeah, now it’s going to start getting dark…” He was surprised that they had been there long enough when it felt that it had been a really short time. “I guess time flies when you’re either working or having fun!”

[Sly Cooper]

“I’m lucky to have a warm blooded brother.” Joan giggled and snuggled closer to Jude for warmth. But then when Feng noticed that she was cold, he insisted on going back home. “It’s not a big deal. I won’t get sick. Trust me. Besides you wanted to come here so badly.” But the young boy insisted, held out a hand to her, and helped her across the creek. Although feeling guilty for causing them all to pack up and leave, Joan was somewhat pleased at the idea of the warm attic, and chances are clean, draw, warm clothes.

Jude on the other hand, would probably just wear the clothes until they dried. But as they walked back and the moon began to show, along with signs of stars, the twins became happy. They both enjoyed the time of day where it wasn’t day, but it wasn’t night. Jude, instead of singing, just hummed quietly to himself unless spoken to, “Yeah it sure does. But most of the time in Gatlin, it’s work, not fun.”

[Aquarius Aziel Feng]

Feng just smirked at the twins as they joked around a bit. But he did care too much to listen to Joan attempting to resist his urgency to leave for her health, and so she had given in, having allowed him to lead her across like he was a gentleman. Now they were walking through the cornfield, although Feng was more likely streaking, but that didn’t bother him much. Moments later they would arrive at the house just as more stars started to show. “We made it back in time, it looks like,” he said as he stole a glance up at the sky and then sensed something else by smell. “Oh, gosh… This is going to be awesome,” He grinned as he glanced back at the twins.

It was going to rain that night and probably for the day, so they could have the attic all day to themselves, meaning they could finish it by tomorrow night if they didn’t stop for too long during breaks and whatnot. He shrugged at Jude’s comment. “If you time it right, you can have fun more than you work. Of course, I never know the time most of the time, so I just lose track of it. At least I don’t have to do a lot. I just carry the water.” He headed up to the house now, ready to just go straight up to the attic so that they could resume their work on, well, considerably a clubhouse. “C’mon, the sooner we get it done, the sooner we can play! Oops…” He covered his mouth upon mentioning the forbidden word. “I mean, hang out.”

[Sly Cooper]

The biggest problem with rainy days was puddles. Puddles meant playtime to Jude, especially if he could splash Joan in the process. And she knew he would do that, so she was less than enthusiastic about rain. “Okay, but if it rains I am not going outside.”

“But sis, the puddles.”

“That’s exactly why I refuse.”

Jude smirked. Last time it rained he found the biggest puddle and he put as much force as he could into it when he jumped, soaking Joan from head to toe. She was less than happy. “You’re no fun.”

Joan looked around in drawers of a dresser in the attic looking for something to wear. It wasn’t very often she wasn’t wearing one of her Amish looking outfits for that was the Gatlin dress code. But when she did pull out something from before the purging, she would be dressed really well. And so she did, she saw no point in hiding when she got dressed since both of the boys had saw her naked at least twice in that very same day.

“You look good sis.” He commented on her looks, “What do you think—or do you still think girls are yucky?”

[Aquarius Aziel Feng]

“I’m not going outside in the rain, so no worries. I just like to watch it rain, and we got the window there so it’s all good.” He grinned at them before turning back and then pulling up the zip line. “I’m just going to use this for tonight to dry my clothes. Maybe tomorrow we can try and find some trees to hang this up. The gear’s already over there so it’s all together.” He knew how zip lines worked, having gone to summer camp plenty of times other than the nudist camps. He also knew just how fun zip lines were, but worried that if Malachai actually saw them having fun, they would be in serious trouble.

“Or maybe we could just try and hang it up in here or something.” He shrugged. The attic was pretty spacious but it was also crowded because of the trunks. And dark. So he wasn’t entirely sure, but back to business. He adjusted the zip line to make it taut and then hung up his clothes carefully away from the blanket before going around to the interior of the walls of the trunks before starting on yet another trunk. Dragging it toward the others, he looked across the room, with a slight smirk, and shrugged. “I think she’s pretty,” said the child as he placed the trunk exactly where he wanted it. “But, eh, not a lot of girls are pretty. Not even guys are pretty.”

[Sly Cooper]

“I think the zip line used to be hung from the top of the barn.” Jude stretched out and then set himself down on the ground where there was a pile of blankets and pillows. “We used to play on it as kids.” He leaned his head over on one of the pillows watching his sister carefully.

“It was fun. We would stack up stuff just so we could crash into it, using the zip line.” Se also threw her clothes over the line, and moved a couple of things around so she could sit on an old recliner put up in the attic. “Actually, I’ve seen some boys that were quite pretty.” Joan giggled thinking of a couple.

“Oh what I’m not good enough?” Jude sat back up and was rather defensive.

“Jealous? No, Jude you are a handsome fellow. Surely you’ve seen a couple of boys who are just gorgeous.”

“No, but then again I don’t check out dudes.” He then grinned knowing what would get to his sister, “That Zipporah, she’s pretty. Very pretty.” He saw his sisters jaw tense as she heard the name. She was always jealous whenever that girl would walk into the room, after all who like competition?

[Aquarius Aziel Feng]

Feng nodded in awe as they spoke of the zip line, and giggled upon imagining the twins crashing into piles of objects. Hopefully nothing harmful, but then again the twins were pretty unpredictable. He was now working on the second trunk trying to pick it up, and had glanced across the room seeing Jude laying down. “Hey!” He snapped in frustration, “You should be helping… It’s not that late yet.” He muttered under his breath as he dropped the trunk on the floor and headed around to grab another so he could drag it adding to the bottom layer of the wall. It was more like a fort than a wall, since the trunks wouldn’t reach taller than Jude, but he had an idea to try and use a wire or something strong to hang up blankets like a tent.

He listened as the twins started up a quarrel again, and just rolled his eyes at that before turning around and facing them. He saw that Joan had grabbed the recliner, too, and he was glad that their flashlight was still working as it was starting to get much darker in here. “On second thought,” he said nervously as he noticed the shadows getting longer outside of the trunks, “Maybe we can just finish it up tomorrow.” He laid out a blanket across the floor, a thick one, and then sat on it crossing his legs and placing his elbows at his knees, where then a closed fist from the good arm would hold up his chin for support as he looked at the twins. “So… What do you guys want to do?” He asked after a few moments. He hadn’t noticed the tension but he was getting pretty tense himself.

[Sly Cooper]

Feng snapped at Jude for laying down on the job, but he blew it off, before getting into an argument with his sister. But of course when the young boy had given up on working on the attic as well, he asked what they wanted to do. What they wanted to do was go at each other, but it would pass, they would ease up, and soon they would want to be on each other.

“I want to tell ghost stories, and roast marshmallows.” Jude said slightly sarcastically, only because he knew he couldn’t do anything of the sort. He could tell ghost stories up the wazoo, but not marshmallow roasting.

“I want to skip town and go on a cruise to the Bahamas.” The two passed glares back and forth till they couldn’t help but stop being mad at one another.

“Um—hmm—I think we have checkers—or chess—maybe even monopoly. I don’t care so long as I can be the hat.” Jude’s tone lightened up.

“Well, what is it you want to do Feng?” Joan asked that question a lot.