Rinsing In The Sun

[Sly Cooper]

Jude eventually came back to the surface, after staying at the bottom as long as he could without drowning himself. So of course he gasped for air, and he did so quite loudly. Joan ignored him for it was just normal behavior on his part. “See what he means by rough and rugged is--” she pressed her pointer finger over her mouth as she came up with the right words, “What he means by it is that we do a lot of roughhousing, horse playing, basically we like to play rough, but not to a point of getting hurt.” She nodded trying to be reassuring, but it made her look more like a maniac.

“Not unless it's kinky, then we do it to get hurt,” Jude chirped from the creek.

“Shut up!” Joan turned and yelled at her brother, “I'm trying to keep him from feeling weirded out.! That kind of talk isn't helping, you pervert!” She turned her attention back to Feng, her tone changing drastically. “Actually, most of the time, when we get to the playing rough it's just words. You know, name calling and what not.”

“Especially with that sharp tongue of her's. Her bark is pretty nasty, but she won't bite.” Jude cooed again.

Joan's jaw tensed, “See, we like to tease. Play around. But we don't stop to baby people by softening out so-called insults.”

Jude started jumping around like a dolphin in back, his hair flopping around in his face. “Basiclly kid, you have to know not to expect nice words to come from her mouth, or you're surely going to be down in it waste deep.” He was mostly picking on the girl like he always did. The teen age boy came back up to the shore.

“Oh like you're such a saint.” Joan shoved him back, causing him to lose his balance. Jude went back in with a splash. Then when he resurfaced again he laughed insanely, Joan still ignoring him, for the most part. “In any case-- yep, that's how Jude and I work. And we like to work as a team.”

[Aquarius Aziel Feng]

He was trying so hard not to laugh when the twins would snap at each other back and forth, or rather, teasing about the other. They were certainly funny, and he certainly liked them. He just hoped he would never see how they could be when they would be mad or even worse, scary. Some of the kids around here were just plain creepy. There was that girl riding her bicycle constantly through the street at noon, it was like a daily thing for her to do, and every time Feng would trek the main street, she was almost always there watching him as she would stop pedaling forward whenever she saw him. It was as if she was obsessed with watching him, but others have told him she did that with everyone. Whoever she was, though, no one knew her name, so they just called her Yellow Dress.

A certain term had gotten Feng quite confused, but he didn’t say anything of it until the end when the twins had stopped talking, right after Joan had pushed Jude back into the water. “Um, what’s kinky?” He blurted out loud when he saw Jude resurfacing, not wanting either one of them to be unable to answer him. Obviously, Joan wasn’t pleased that Jude was using that term, or basically some kind of talk that she didn’t think was helping. Whatever it was, though, Feng had abruptly forgotten all about it as he turned around and sat down on the wet sand, having gone closer to the shore so he could still keep his sling dry enough. Or at least as dry as it still was. Then he was talking about the keys that Jude had mentioned earlier, thus it would then be acknowledged he did indeed forget the word that could’ve made things very, very awkward. “So… when do you think I can have the keys? Could I still have them? I don’t want to go now, I want to swim first, but yeah… I’m just going to shut up and not sound stupid anymore…” Truth was, he was a bit confused, and feeling a bit exhausted.

[Sly Cooper]

Joan's face turned white when Feng asked what 'kinky' meant, but she just ignored the question like she didn't hear him. All the meanwhile in the back of her head she wanted to hurt her brother severely, but on the other hand she wanted to be 'kinky' with him too. She refrained from having a wicked little grin as her mind wandered to other things.

Jude on the other hand, started laughing insanely, it was loud and hollow like a tiger's growl. Actually, with his sharp teeth showing in his mischievous grin, he looked a lot like a tiger too. Hmm-- the keys, the keys, about the keys. Jude stopped laughing long enough to answer about the keys. “They keys are in my trunk of useless junk.” Both of them giggled at the rhyme, then he continued, “See, I don't know if you remember, but we had to burn everything after the purging. So my sis and I put everything we wanted to keep hold of in this steamer trunk hidden in our secret hide out. Our club when we were growing up, so to speak. So, we'd have to go to our old family farm to get the keys.”

Joan pulled off her clothes and joined in with her brother, “I'm not really sure why you kept the keys, but at least now they have a purpose.” She stood right next to him and leaned her head on his shoulder. “Oh how wonderful it can be to have a hording brother.”

“I don't pile us up in junk the way Uncle Phill did so shut it.” Then again they did the synchronized laughing, after talking about the past, again. “When would you like to get the keys?”

[Aquarius Aziel Feng]

They had talked some more about the keys, although Feng had been jerked awake when Jude had laughed out so loud. He didn’t know he had been falling asleep, but at least Jude had caused him to stir and to pay more attention now. He had seen by now that Joan had joined the boys for the skinny dip once again, and well, he wasn’t so bothered by it now. He had seen women in the buff before, his mother and sister being them mostly, and when he was younger they had gone to a nudist camp every summer. He listened as the twins started a small conversation, about to doze off once more before Jude had asked him about the keys.

“Oh! Um… Not now. Later today. Maybe when it gets a little dark, I don’t know.” He shrugged, but he knew he wanted to wait until later. Swimming was more fun than walking for however many miles, especially when it would be arriving at a place he wouldn’t be all too familiar with. Even then, it was apparently a farm, and the boy would get lost easily if the twins wouldn’t be there, and he didn’t know whether they would allow him in their house or barn or wherever they would go upon arriving there, but one thing he knew for sure was that he wasn’t ready to go just yet. In fact, he was feeling more exhausted by every passing minute, his eyelids getting heavier as the time passed by.

Finally, he decided he would give in to his being tired, and stood up quickly, heading to the shore and then laying on the sand on his back, keeping his sling upon his chest while placing his other hand under his head, gulping and then taking in a deep breath before letting out a sharp exhale. He turned his head to face the twins and said loudly but tiredly, “I need a nap… Wake me up in an hour and we can swim some more, then… We can… go get the… keys…” He was already fast asleep upon saying the last word. Moments later, he had shivered a bit but it wasn’t really noticeable, however the boy did shift position in his sleep by turning to his good side, his bad arm pressing against the ground when it shouldn’t.

[Sly Cooper]

“A whole hour—” Jude smirked. “That means I have you to myself for a whole hour,” Jude grabbed his sister from behind and said quietly in her ear, careful not to wake the sleeping boy.

“Oh shush,” Joan tapped his nose like one does to a bad dog. But they did proceed to spend that time doing creepy twin things. I’ll let you use your imagination. Granted they didn’t do anything that hasn’t been seen in a Pg-13 movie—but nonetheless I’m not going into detail. Well, of course, since the twins were too caught up in each other, they didn’t notice how Feng had rolled over on his bad arm until about an hour had passed, according to the sun’s location and where it had been. “Uh—Jude--,” Joan called out to him, “I think he slept on it wrong.”

Jude came over and looked, “You can say that, but I think the wrist is—fine—”

“Roll him over.”

“No! You roll him over,” Jude crossed his arms and stood his ground, “Or you could just wake him up like he had asked us to an hour ago.” He bent in close to the boy’s face then loud but not too loud, didn’t care if he was awake or not, “Hey kid, I think you slept on it wrong. It’s time you best be getting up.”

[Aquarius Aziel Feng]

For quite an hour, he did have a pleasant nap, until at least he started to feel sore in his wrist. Because he was so far asleep, though, he couldn’t figure out whether it was real pain or just something in one of those dreams he was having. He did whimper every now and then but he wasn’t having any nightmares so far. Moments later, he could feel warm air on his face, different than the usual atmospheric air. Then he could sense some bad breath coming from above, and scrunched up his face, thinking he was smelling a dead animal or something worse.

But then a loud voice rang into his ears, and the boy jerked awake in fright, and looked at Jude in surprise with his eyes halfway closed as he was partly asleep. But after that, he had immediately winced, clenching his teeth and grabbing his bad hand, realizing by now what Jude had meant. For a long moment, he seemed confused, as if he didn’t know where he was or why his hand was hurting, but apparently, in that amount of time it had come back to him. He glanced at the twin and muttered, “Oh. Hi…” He said calmly before reaching up with his good hand to rub his eyes. He stretched as well, letting out a long yawn before accidentally breaking wind. His face turned red at once. “Whoops…”

[Sly Cooper]

“Oh is all you have to say?” Jude raised an eye brow. “You didn't re-break it did you?”

“Well at least he didn't break his collar bone like you did when you were twelve.” Joan sat down next to Feng and looked at him.

“He still have a few years to catch up to my awesome reputation.”

Joan shook her head at her brother like she often did. “Feng, I know it hurts, but does it hurt as bad as it did when you broke it. I heard it wasn't supposed to hurt as much after they reset the bone. So, if that's true, maybe we can tell if you re-broke it or not--” Joan was mostly pulling reasoning out of thin air. But it did make sense in a way.

Jude got out and shook off like a wet dog, “I hope not. Ew-- what a pain, literally.” He came and sat on the other side of Feng. It's true, in a lot of ways Joan was more pleasant to be next to. She smelled better, she was softer spoken, not quiet to unpredictable, but Jude also had good qualities that she didn't have such as empathy, and he served as a good distraction when things weren't going as well as maybe they should. “Well, I bet that it couldn't be as bad the second time. Like, it might still really hurt, but at least you know what to expect the second-- third-- or even fourth time around.”

[Aquarius Aziel Feng]

He shrugged lightly at first, not entirely sure what Jude had met, but then Joan had mentioned Jude breaking his collarbone. “What’s a collarbone,” asked the boy quickly as he looked over at Jude, as if checking to see if his collarbone was broken just by a glance. By this time Joan had sat down next to him, and he turned his head to face her for she was speaking to him. He blinked, obviously confused, but then realized that his hand was indeed hurting badly, although worse than it should‘ve been but not as it was when he had first broken it, even noticing when he had looked down that the gauze seemed a little out of place. “Ow,” whimpered the boy. Then he realized at the last minute he had been laying on his side using the bad arm accidentally for support.

By now Jude had come out, but the boy, although his eyes were filling with water and he was doing his best not to start crying again, simply let the teenagers sit at either side. It was a bit of a comfortable feeling yet a strange one as well. He gulped when Jude was done talking, “I don’t plan to break it again, ever again… I guess I will have to stay up forever until the wrist’s all better.” He muttered, his voice slightly breaking but he managed to try and stay manly. He glanced over at Jude, and embarrassed but certain that something was wrong, asked her, “Please fix it? Then we can go swimming again… Or, something. I don’t know.” If she agreed to fix it, he was doing his best to prepare for the inevitable pain he knew he would feel again.

[Sly Cooper]

“See when I was twelve,” Jude pointed out a white scar, “I broke my collar bone so bad that it was pointing out through the skin. That hurt like a—“ He stopped there before swearing. “Point is—I guess there isn’t a point. But you can’t just stay up for six weeks. You’d go crazy and look like crap.”

“And anyways, that would be the worst six weeks ever.” Joan put her hand out for Feng to put his in.

“I don’t know why the woman didn’t put some sort of board or something for support. I mean, that’s the best way to make sure it doesn’t –“

Joan shushed him, “You’re not helping any. And if you know so much, why didn’t you fix it?”

A smug look crossed his face, and then he rolled his eyes, “Because it’s not my job. In any case—I could fix it—If he wanted me to.” He looked directly at the boy, “Do you want me to fix it?”

Joan’s eyes grew wide, and she shook her head franticly, “No, tell him no!”

“Oh shut up. I know what I’m doing.”

[Aquarius Aziel Feng]

He sighed a bit, disappointed that he couldn’t really stay up for six weeks. He wasn’t even aware that it would take that long for his wrist to heal, but if Jude had his collarbone broken once before, then obviously he would know how long it would take. Feng knew he could trust the twins, Joan more than Jude, but still trust them both anyway. So far, in all the time they had spent together alone that day they hadn’t tried to hurt him and instead spent time with him, treating him nicely and even taking him in as their little brother. He was proud of them for that, although he didn’t understand why he had to feel proud.

He raised an eyebrow when Jude mentioned using a board for support. His smile was half crooked as he was now uncertain about what to do, as he hadn’t yet put his hand in Joan’s. He was still not sure exactly what a collarbone was but was able to see the scar Jude had shown him, so guessed it was something to do with the shoulders. He shrugged lightly at Jude’s question at first, being hesitant because of Joan’s demand for him to refuse Jude’s offer. But… Jude’s statement reassured him, and so he nodded nervously at the teenager.

[Sly Cooper]

Jude smiled and took his hand, "Alright, as I'm sure you've figured out this is gonna hurt a bit. And sound a little gross." Jude sighed and rested her forehead against her palm, as always, she was a little worried and disappointed. Jude the grasped Feng's wrist with the other hand then without warning, POP. Not as loud as when it broke, certainly not as loud as the first time it was fixed, but nonetheless a pop. "Alright, that should about do it!"

Jude then jumped up, and Joan looked at the boy, "Are you okay? Does it hurt? What did he do? Please tell me he didn't screw it up worse then it was!" She continued to freak out, hyperventilating.

Jude came back with a a fairly large stick about the same thickness as Feng's wrist. "Alright, see, you have to tie this to your arm, then leave it there unless you're healed, or just about there. Got it kiddo?" He then handed the stick over for the boy . "But, I don't have any rope on me right now." He grinned at his sister, and she knew what it is he wanted.

"Fine--" She untied her hair then handed the handed the ribbon over.

"You ready for this, kid?"

[Aquarius Aziel Feng]

He gulped again, in fear of what Jude had on his mind when he had taken the young boy’s wrist, not aware that he had disappointed the girl as he was so focused on his wrist and trying to see what Jude was up to. Then he heard the pop, felt the pain searing through his wrist. “Ow…” The boy’s face turned, looking as if he was about to cry but he managed to fight back the tears by biting his bottom lip hard. He glanced at Joan and shrugged ever so slightly, not entirely sure whether Jude had made it worse or not. “It hurts… But only a little…” He was a bit amused by Joan’s hysterical reaction, though, thus he had a half-crooked smile.

He looked around and found Jude returning with a large stick that seemed to about the same size as his wrist. He figured that Jude was going to fix his wrist with that thing, as he had heard about the board. Jude explained what the boy would have to do for the healing period, needing to keep the stick attached until the time would be right. He watched as the twins exchanged looks and noticed that Joan had untied her hair handing over the ribbon in the end. He glanced at Jude nervously, as if wanting to change his mind, but Jude had already done part of the process… If there was more, Feng couldn’t just refuse. “Okay…”

[Sly Cooper]

Jude grinned as Feng accepted his offer. “Alright.” He grabbed his arm gently, put the stick up to it, then used the ribbon to tie the stick to his arm, wrapping it around several times before putting in the knot. “So, how's that, kid? Try it out. Does it keep it from moving around so much?” Jude held his head up high with a look of delight strung on his face.

“For his sake, I hope it's better.” Joan bit her bottom lip. She was less worried about the stick or her brother and more concerned about the bone, the broken wrist.

“Well, he did say it felt a little better right?”

Joan's eyebrows raised in the middle, “Yeah but he could've lied.”

“Would you lie to me, kid?” Jude looked at Feng in the face. “Why would he lie to me?”

“Because he doesn't want to hurt your feelings. Or maybe he doesn't want to go running off to find the healer again. There's many reasons to lie, Jude.”

He tilted his head, “Yeah, but little kids don't lie unless it keeps them outta trouble. Yep-- although, he's not too little any more. You get to be nine you start lieing about everything. How old are you kid?” Jude just figured that all children develop the way he did. Feng, being one of those children, he figured he was much the same. “Yep, lieing to everyone that's older than you. 'sept for those few that are really close to you.” He smirked then sat back down next to the boy again. He was sort of hoping that Feng wasn't leing because he wanted to have had actually fixed his wrist, but 'kids are kids.'

[Aquarius Aziel Feng]

Feng wasn’t pleased with the grin because it had made him feel suspicious, but as the teenager wrapped the ribbon around his arm all he could say was “Ow,”, or wince from the temporary pain that would come with every tightening grip. When Jude was done, he was asked to move his wrist, and at first, the young one was reluctant. He didn’t want any more pain, but he had to do it to test it at least. So, he tried to move his hand to either side first. But he couldn’t do it, so then he tried to move it back and forth, and just like the first attempted movement, he couldn’t move it there, either. He could move his fingers very slightly, but as for the rest of the hand and wrist and up to his elbow, it was pretty much stiff. “I can’t move it.” He confirmed.

He glanced at Joan and decided to try and make her feel better. “It’s only sore now…” He was after all telling the very truth, but it seemed like Joan wouldn’t believe him just yet. Even now Jude had started to doubt it, as it would seem. Feng was a bit upset that they would doubt him. Of course he was just a little kid, but why would he lie to them? He liked them, he was sure they wouldn’t dare hurt him, but apparently, they seemed to think a bit ill of him at the moment. “Um…” Granted, the boy would lie to total strangers, but these twins weren’t strangers to him now. He knew their names, quite a few things about them, and even seen them in the buff. The only thing he didn’t know about them was just how old they were, but he wouldn’t bother with that again. “I’m ten,” muttered the boy, and then he continued, “And no, I’m not lying…” To try and change the subject, he asked kindly, “So what do you want to do?”

[Sly Cooper]

“See he wasn’t lieing.”

Joan tuned her twin out, like she would whenever he was being obnoxious or rude. “What is it that you want to do? “

“Why would the kid lie?”

She continued to ignore him, “We could go get the keys, continue swimming, or even something else. Come to think of it, Jude and I do all the talking. What is it you have to say—or ask. I always play twenty twenty with you, but you never get to ask us—me anything. Is there anything you would like to know?”

“Yeah kiddo, how about it?”

“Although,” she came in closer to Feng and quieted down without actually whispering. “Jude is quite a talker.”

“I can still hear you.” Jude walked into the water then flopped down, floating lazily on the surface.

“So. Anyways. What is it you want to do Feng. It’s all up to you?” Joan’s nose crinkled as she let out a giggle. She stretched out with her arms above her head and her back arched till it cracked, and then yawned.