Rinsing In The Sun

[Aquarius Aziel Feng]

Slowly but surely the boy started to come to, just as he started hearing footsteps coming up the stairs. He knew that the twins were on their way, probably having heard him scream. He reached up to rub his eyes, as his eyesight was at first blurry, but his senses were soon normal. The boy sat up carefully, as if he had been hit and was checking to make sure he was still alive. There, he saw that skull again grinning at it, and gasped in fright as he reached up and snapped the skull off from the rest of its body. It wasn’t really hard to the touch, and that made Feng reconsider that this thing even used to be alive once. “Hey, wait a minute…” the boy said quietly as he stood up, brushing off the dirt, and then took a closer look.

There was the rest of the bones, but attached to the ribs were a few strings. Under the bones were black and orange objects, fit for Halloween. He realized then that it was just all a fake, the skull, the bones, everything. He scoffed, laughing at himself for his foolishness and then went to pick up the skull. When the twins would then arrive, he tossed it at them, hoping to frighten them a bit. “Hey, catch!” He grinned, smirking at the twosome as he watched for their reactions.

[Sly Cooper]

Jude caught the scull with his free hand, and a strait face. But he wasn’t mad. He knew that if you told a child not to do something that they would. Which is why Joan purposefully told him to try out the keys. After all what fun is it if you can’t be braking some sort of rule. A huge grin covered Jude’s face. “Here’s the box.” He handed it over.

“Go on open it. Open the box.” Joan persisted. They both stared at him waiting for him to take the box and open it. The mysterious box. It was a tin box that had been painted green. It looked almost like maybe it was an old box of bullets, but that’s not what was inside.

“You will like what’s inside. I’m sure of it.” Jude tilted his head upward, in a smug sort of way. He and his sister were quite proud of what was in the box. Their wonderful, mysterious, and now passed down box.

[Aquarius Aziel Feng]

He blinked when he was handed the box. It did seem like the twins weren’t really pleased with him being in the attic, but of course, they weren’t really making a big deal out of it so he was happy to just get away safely, figuratively speaking. His smile turned from one of relief to a relief of concern as to just what could possibly be in the box. “Hmm,” he pondered, a bit hesitant at first. But when he was encouraged to open the box, he sighed heavily but gave them a friendly smile as he found the latch and started to click it open. He suddenly sneezed, since there were plenty of dust around in the attic. “Ugh,” groaned the boy as he wiped his nose and then proceeded to open the box.

“Wow,” gasped Feng. In it was a small object similar to a car. It was pretty much, apparently, exactly a smaller scale model of an actual car. It was red, with a stripe. It was basically, a classic car. He tried to see if he could recognize it by looking for the signal, but it was so tiny he couldn’t find it. Either that or he actually couldn’t read it. “Wow. This is for me?” He looked up, surprised. He wasn’t exactly sure if it was really for him, if they were handing him something that valuable, at least to him, it had to mean something.

[Sly Cooper]

At first the two didn’t utter a word, just looked at him with utter joy.

“Yes the box—“ Joan started.

But Jude cut her off, “And all the contents in the box.”

“Are yours to keep.” Both twins then looked very pleased with themselves. It wasn’t uncommon for the two to think very highly of themselves, but this time it wasn’t a smug sort of pleased. “However you can’t hurt what’s in the box.”

“We got it from our father, now we are giving it to you.” Essentially, they wanted to give the boy a token of appreciation, and a token of family. To the twins, family was everything, especially each other. But there was definitely not doubt that if Feng did something foolish that was harmful, or fatal, to one, the other would not, in anyway shape or form, let the boy go. If anything they would come after him and have him suffer much the same fate. The box was most of all a token of understanding, agreeing not to harm your own family.

[Aquarius Aziel Feng]

Feng was pleased with his gift, and would’ve given the twins a massive hug each had it not be for his wrist. So instead, he would’ve gone up on a crate nearby, put down the box, wrapped an arm around Joan first and planted a kiss on her cheek. Then he did the same for Jude. It would probably be awkward, but it was just to show his gratitude. Then he would simply say, “Thank you”, with a big smile on his face. “I will treasure it always!” His smile evolved into a grin before he turned around and started to explore. “So you’ve never been in here before, huh?” He asked calmly as he started approaching some trunks laying around.

“There could be a lot of cool stuff in here. Maybe we could even hide out here from time to time, since it’s so dark.” He started pondering whether they could plant booby traps throughout the house, but he didn’t want to mention anything about it. At least not for now. Booby traps were deadly, usually, and he wasn’t sure if the twins could keep a secret well enough to let it really work. Besides, they could end up thinking he was building the booby traps for the others. So it was better to be safe and alive, than to be sorry and dead.

[Sly Cooper]

Both twins wrapped their arms around Feng when it was their turn for it. First Joan then Jude. Then Jude tilted his head slightly and looked around curiously. “No we’ve never been in here. We were never aloud to be in here. And then we never bothered with it when the family—died.” He tried to put it more kindly. “Old habits die hard.”

Joan didn’t say a word, the truth was she had been in the attic many times as a child, and Jude just never knew. Although, conscious, the two were never apart, but at night when her baby brother was sleeping—she would be in the attic, with their older cousin. It wasn’t like her to keep secrets from her other half. It was something she never told him, and never planed on it either. She just looked around like she hadn’t seen it before. “I doubt there’s anything cool in here. Just some crummy old adult stuff.”

“Yeah but we could take all that crummy stuff and make it into something awesome!” Jude like always was way over enthusiastic.

“And what makes you think we have the skill to do that?” She more or less didn’t want them touching anything in the attic, but wouldn’t just say it. She looked at her twin with curiosity, has he ever just went off and spent time alone, with out me?

Jude then, ignoring his sister, went rummaging through some of the boxes. They were covered in just, and Jude’s allergies began to act up. “Achoo!” he sniffed,” because, unlike you, I know how to put stuff together. Boys are good at that you know.”

Joan shook her head.

“Yes, Feng we should hang out up here. There’s lots of really cool stuff. Joan’s just a girl, she doesn’t get it.”

[Aquarius Aziel Feng]

Feng just shrugged in response to the twins for the time being as he started looking through one of the nearer trunks. It was rather large, with crimson clothing glued on the sides and over the lid, and had yellow borders of wood put together to form squares here and there. He had managed to open it without needing a key, as it had been slightly open, probably from damage. “We would probably need some of those keys, just in case. But yeah, that door was hard to open… I just practically had to wrestle it to get it to even budge!” His shoulder was indeed sore from the impacts, but he didn’t let it bother him as he started looking through the trunk more vigorously as Jude exclaimed out loud about turning this stuff into useful stuff.

“Maybe booby traps,” said the boy quietly without thinking as he pulled out a few old magazines, all with pictures of at least one woman on the cover. “Wow… I guess everyone used to be naked in the past,” he said as he put the magazines on the floor not knowing any better before reaching back into the trunk and pulling out some kind of coat that reeked badly. “Ugh. This is thick…” He muttered as he gently placed it on a chair nearby. Now he had reached back into the trunk once more and started pulling out something like a rope but it was not thick enough to be an actual rope. It was actually too strong to even pull apart, as it felt like it was made of some kind of metal. “What gives?” He asked in surprise as it kept on coming out and out until then it got stuck.

He returned to the trunk, and then pulled out a few things that was obstructing the end of the line. Finally, he pulled out what seemed like two unattached nooses and then a few boards that had a cut in them big enough to fit the line. “Huh?” He glanced at them back and forth carefully before turning to the twins. “Hmm…” He pondered for a long moment and then realized just what the line was, and exclaimed out loud just as Jude had sneezed. ‘Oh, my gosh, it’s a zip line!” He then tossed the boards to the rest of the rope excitedly and then retreated back into the trunk to find out whatever else could be in there. “Wow… More of those magazines but with both men and women.” He pulled them out and placed them with the others.

When the trunk was very empty indeed, he put the magazines and the coat back into the trunk but didn’t close it. He turned and rushed back to the zip line, picking it up gently and then carrying it to the door. “We’re so taking this with us… I can climb… Oh, never mind, I can’t climb trees with just one arm. Damn.” He muttered but retreated to yet another trunk, about his size. He would try to open it but the lid didn’t budge. “Aw…” He knocked on the lid, and the trunk sounded hollow. “I guess there’s really nothing in here, then,” said the child as he got up and headed over to where Jude was. “Anything?" He asked just before Jude had made that statement about hanging out in here. He nodded in agreement, "Yeah!"

[Sly Cooper]

Joan just stood back and watched the two boys. Jude pulled out some old clothes, photos, jewelry, just old useless junk. “This ones full of girly stuff.” He then moved to a different box, sneezing all the while. “My sis and I put booby traps up all over Gatlin. If you’ve ever run into one it was probably us. Although most of them are on the outskirts of the field. We have a few on the farm to keep people out.”

“You made the booby traps.”

“Better not go running off and telling everybody.” He pulled out old books. Most of them were just classic novels and a few plays. But down at the bottom were some cool trinkets and his sister’s diary. Useless, but cool nonetheless. “I can climb trees!”

“He climbs trees like a monkey.” Joan snickered.

Jude sneezed again, “Here’s some decorations from Christmas.” Feng came up to him and asked if he found anything of interest. But the truth was there wasn’t much—unless Joan’s diary counted. But it was against his beliefs to read it. “I found toys and junk. Some baby pictures. Coats. And-- these super cool gargoyle bookends.”

[Aquarius Aziel Feng]

He listened as Jude spoke of the booby traps and smirked lightly at him. “Cool,” said the child as he reached into the same trunk that Jude was looking through and pulled out a red hat that was similar to the hat that Santa Claus would wear. He placed it on his head just for amusement, and sure enough, he did look rather amusing. He watched as Jude continued to sneeze, slightly shaking his head. He did feel a little sorry for the other, but he could feel that he was about to sneeze himself. But he was holding it back as much as he could, but by the time Jude had exclaimed about the trees, he couldn’t hold it in any longer. He started to have a sneezing frenzy for about a minute, with short pauses here and long pauses there. But finally, it had passed and he giggled, a bit embarrassed.

“Sorry!” He said calmly as he stood up and stretched his legs. Then he realized something. “Hey, this attic’s pretty warm. Since it’s getting cold, maybe we can start sleeping in here. No one would probably know the wiser unless they actually look in here. We would have the attic locked and all that stuff.” He shrugged as he thought about it some more and then found a small trunk in the far corner away from the twins. He headed over there and then opened the trunk with the aid of a small key when it hadn’t budged at first. In it were some old pictures but at the bottom of the trunk was a large key. “Hey…” He grabbed it and rushed back to the trunk that he hadn’t been able to open at first. It clicked, but the lid was a bit heavy for him especially when he could use only one arm. “Hey, Jude, some help here?”

[Sly Cooper]

The very moment Feng went into a sneezing fit, Jude joined him. It wasn’t any secret that he was highly allergic to dust and mold. Joan just giggled, slightly amused by how cute it was. Jude, unlike feng, wasn’t at all embarrassed instead continued to go through boxes. “You want to spend the winter here?” Jude repeated him like he was crazy.

“Why what’s wrong with it?”

“It’s dust and—“ he sneezed yet again, “Stuff.” He then whipped his nose on the back of his hand.

“We can clean it up.”

But Jude knew that meant work, and he hated work. “Fine, but you owe me afterwards.”

She smiled sweetly, “Of course Jude.” She knew her brother couldn’t resist a simple smile.”

Feng called him over. “I’m just needed everywhere today.” He went over to help the boy with the trunk.

[Aquarius Aziel Feng]

He nodded upon Jude’s sudden remark about spending the winter here, but shrugged. “We can clean it up,” he had said in unison with Joan, and couldn’t help but giggle at that. “Just got to move some trunks around, cover up windows, sweep the floors, make sure there’s locks, stuff like that,” the boy smiled as he went on about what they could do to make the attic better for the trio. After he had felt that he did enough babbling, he chuckled at himself and then proceeded to open the lid of the trunk. “Wow!” He exclaimed as he saw what was in it. There were plenty of blankets and sheets. “Hey… Looks like we can be ready for -- Spider!” He leapt up into Jude’s arms at the sight of an adult wolf spider crawling out from under the trunk.

Indeed, there were plenty of spiders in here, so there would be more work. When Feng realized what he had done, he immediately blushed a violent red and scrambled out of his brother’s arms, brushing off the dust from his legs with his good arm and then adjusting his clothes. “Um, sorry about that,” he muttered as he reached up to scratch behind his head. “Well, Jude, you can definitely help by eating the spiders,” he said as he shuddered at the idea of it. He was starting to feel that his shirt was a big tighter than usual, but it was really because he had panicked so suddenly. With a shy chuckle he simply pulled the trunk immediately with his good arm to shake off any more spiders and to try and keep them away.

[Sly Cooper]

Jude wasn’t happy at the thought of cleaning or moving stuff around, and he muttered to himself about it a bit. A giant spider came running out, and his eyes automatically followed it, that is until the smaller boy came jumping up into his arms. He looked at him a little funny. He was used to it because his sister would do it frequently, but he still chuckles nonetheless. He let Feng down when he scrambled out of his arms, then looked for the spider.

“please don’t encourage him,” Joan giggled.

Squish. Jude picked up the dead spider and looked at it. Joan’s face turned green before he even put it in his mouth. “Not as good as some. Poisonous ones usually aren’t”

“Only you would know.”

[Aquarius Aziel Feng]

He was a bit disgusted with Jude after watching him eat the spider. He shuddered and tried not to puke before he started pulling out the blankets from the trunk. “As I was saying,” he said as he glanced at Joan and then Jude, “we will definitely be prepared for the winter because of all this stuff in here.” He grinned as he finished pulling out the blankets, being careful as to fold them to the best of his ability before reaching back in and pulling out sheets.

“I didn’t know wolf spiders were poisonous. I just know they were big, ugh.” He shuddered again before reaching back into the trunk and then feeling something prick his fingers. “Ouch! Oh, damn needles!” He cursed as he reached in and pulled out some of stuffed apple with needles sticking out from it. “Looks like something we could maybe use for the booby traps sometime.” He shrugged as he glanced across and looked at the zip line before looking back and forth between the attic. He was wondering if they could possibly put the zip line up in here but he wasn’t sure if the attic was wide enough.

[Sly Cooper]

“They’re not poisonous.” Joan made a face. “He just likes to act like they are more harsh than they are.”

“I calls em as I sees em.” Jude shrugged

Joan crossed her arms, “You can’t just claim that they are poisonous. They either are or aren’t.”

“Whatever. Big, tasty things though.”

Joan shuddered, ready to hurl.

“So you want to use gramma’s sewing kit to make a booby trap?” He thought about that, “That might work but I wouldn’t count on it.” He looked around in the box along side Feng. “Lots of big warm blankets.”

“Yeah, aunt Linda used to quilt and knit, and crochet. That’s what happens You end up with a huge supply of blankets and doilies.”

[Aquarius Aziel Feng]

He raised an eyebrow and simply let out a small sigh as the twins started up a little quarrel once again. “Do you two always fight like that?” He asked as they had ceased, with Joan crossing her arms and Jude making that gross comment. Feng was feeling the same as Joan, wanting to hurl. But he simply shrugged in response to using the sewing kit. “Could use the needles for people’s feet, something like that.” He explained as he stood up again and carried the sewing kit to Joan. He placed it on the trunk by her and stated calmly, “It’s bad luck to hand something sharp to someone else.” With that, he turned and walked away, looking into yet another trunk.

“Yeah, we could hang up the blankets and make walls, and could put some on the floor so that it would get pretty warm in the spot. But eh, I think we will want to get tucked in, and not worry about spiders crawling over us.” He shuddered at the thought of that but then found something that caught his eye. “Wow,” he said as he pulled out karate robes. “A Gi!” He exclaimed as he placed it neatly on the floor and then reached in the trunk once again. There was another one, smaller, one that could fit him. “Oh, man, oh, man, oh, man. Can I have this? Please?” He turned and looked at the twins with wide puppy’s eyes.