One night in Maine...

[x-marrow.livejournal.com]

A wet midnight forest wasn't really a place Jono was accustomed to romping in, and he swore rather loudly when yet another branch whipped him in the face. He'd given up on covering his glowy chest in order to provide some lighting. "Fuck", he started again when he almost tripped over a root. "Next time remind me I don't want to go walking in a dark forest."

"Just wait till we get lost. " Sarah said, not faring much better than Jono. She waved her hand vaguely in front of her, to keep from running into anything. "That's when the real fun begins."

"Give me asphalt and streetlamps any day over this," Jono said, then almost stumbled. "That's it. I'm not going farther. I can't even see the lights from the house anymore."

"That's cause we're surrounded by fucking trees." She wrapped her arms tighter around her chest, in the vain hope it'd be warmer that way. "It's too damn organic here."

"I know," Jono stamped his feet on the ground as if angry at it for daring to exist and sprout up all kinds of plants. "You have a bone sticking from your shoulder, you know," he commented offhandedly, quite sure Sarah actually did know it was there.

Sarah looked at Jono, with an amused look on her face. "Yeah. Does it bug you?"

"No, not really," he tilted his head. "Does it come out?"

Sarah grabbed the bone with her right hand, and gave it a sharp pull. It was long and jagged, and she winced. "Yeah."

It was hard to tell if Jono had an expression of any kind with the light obscuring most of his face. He reached out and picked it from Sarah's fingers, turning it around in his hands. "Bloody nasty thing," he observed, then took a step back and threw it at a tree a little distance away. It bounced harmlessly off.

Sarah grinned, hand still rubbing her shoulder. "Tree 1, Jono 0."

"Oh, joy," Jono deadpanned then fetched the sharp bone from where it gleamed white on the ground. He tossed it to Sarah. "Well, you show how it's done then."

She caught the bone, using it to scratch the top of her leg. There'd be another bone there soon. Aiming for a tree a little farther back, she threw it. It landed in the bark of the tree, and sending a squirrel running in the opposite direction. "Just like that."

"Right," Jono sounded a bit dubious, then stared hard at the bone for a moment in the flickering light of his self. "Still not telekinetic," he finally said and went to pick up the thing again. "So," he hefted the bone. "How do you hold this?"

"Basic bone, knife, and dart throwing? Like this." She moved his fingers till he held the bone correctly, and then took a step back. "You can throw it other ways, but that takes more practice. Now try not to think too hard about what you're doing. It's just a fluid motion."

"I'm rating this as one of the strangest moments of my life," Jono tried to imitate what Sarah had done and ended up missing the tree and sending the bone flying into the dark. He looked after it, displeased. "Paige did say I had a bit of a hook when I try to throw things."

Sarah decided not to comment on the fact that Jono had completely missed an inanimate object. She'd save that for later. "What, is Paige teaching you to throw too?"

"No," Jono shrugged, walking a few steps into the direction of the bone. He couldn't see it. "At least not anything sharp."

"What's the fun in that?" A bone pushed through at her thigh, ripping her jeans. She pulled it out, and threw it to Jono. "Try again?"

He caught it, concentrated and threw it, managing to hit a tree this time with the pointy end. It stuck for a second, then fell. "This is pathetic," he remarked. "And wet. And cold." He'd noticed Sarah's shivering. "Maybe we should continue this when it's not in the middle of the night somewhere in a forest in Maine."

"That's an idea. I doubt pneumonia will get us out of anything." She took one last bone from her arm, and flung it at the tree they'd been aiming for. It stuck with a thud. "Besides, it's taken me years of having nothing to do but throw bones at asshole uplanders to get to be like this."

"Pneumonia. If only," there was equal parts amusement and self-disgust in his reply. "Well, I've got time. It doesn't seem I'm going anywhere in a hurry."

Sarah shrugged. "No, I guess not. But that's not to say I won't eventually decide this whole mutant daycare thing is fucking stupid and skip out."

"I think that goes for all of us," Jono pulled up the collar of his leather jacket, more from habit than any real feeling of cold. "At least tell me when you decide to leave, yeah?"

"You comin' with me?" she said, glancing quickly at him before returning her attention to what little ground she could see.

He shrugged, then nudged her with his elbow. "Maybe. Let's get back to the house."

Comments

[x-foliate.livejournal.com]

This is abnormally cute. By cute I mean not cute at all as I'm sure Sarah doesn't do cute.

(doesn't point out that she didn't say Jono doesn't do cute)

[x-sparky.livejournal.com]

I resent that.

[x-foliate.livejournal.com]

But don't deny it, I notice.