Rooted to the place you sprang from...

[gotacigarette]

On the beach, Eden's chasing birds. She's running around with bare feet and Alice helped her roll up the cuffs on the camos she found, and she's got a khaki coloured t-shirt and a jacket discarded near-by and the clothes box even gave her a cap and a plastic gun. When Eden was nine years old, she hadn't done much playing. There hadn't been muc

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[yo_babe]

This ain't a good age for Babe. When he was nine, he looked six, at least in size. His cheeks always flushed easily and his hair had a cowlick in the back. It's one thing to wake up in your nine old body. It's another to walk down the beach in the cowboy outfit the clothing box had given him, a water pistol in the holster, with a piglet following him as he kicks up sand with his boots. Then, to see his...girlfriend? Is that what she is? Hell - no, no - heck, girls have cooties and other playground viruses at that age, don't they?

Yeah, that's what she's got. Cooties. That's why there's birds flyin' away from her as quick as ya like 'em. When she's stalking them, Babe moves to crouch down beside her, his own water pistol drawn. Oh, God, they had sex....he's really tryin' not to think about that. "Are ya goin' through all this trouble for a bunch-a birds?" he asks, not really doing a great job at whispering.

[gotacigarette]

His accent, the way he holds himself. She knows who he is the minute she looks at him. He's got a gun, too, and, whereas, when she's an adult, there's this flicker of want in her belly when she sees him as much sense as that makes, now she can feel her cheeks flushing.

"I'm playing," she points out, saying it quietly and deliberately. "You don't have to play, Babe."

[yo_babe]

Babe, despite himself, is offended. His nose wrinkles up and now he's gotta stay, just to prove something. What that something is, he doesn't know, but he's gonna damn well prove it anyway. "Nuh-huh," he shakes his head, his red hair flopping around his forehead. When he stops, he asks, "What are we playing?" Funny how he doesn't understand the question would've been a lot more than about water pistols and bird huntin'.

[gotacigarette]

"Chasing the birds," she says, like it's the most self-explanatory thing in the world, keeping low to the ground as she stalks forward against the birds. It's easier to keep playing than to sit side by side with Babe in the sand and try to make sense of a tangle of thoughts far too complicated for a little head.

She turns and squints at him in the sun.

"Are you coming or what, soldier?"

[yo_babe]

Birds. They're huntin' birds. That's boring.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm comin'," he says anyway, then stands up and moves forward, ducked low. But it ain't the birds he shoots with the water pistol. It's Eden 'cause he can't stop himself. She gets a good stream of the water, too, and Babe prepares to run his ass off. He was agile at this age, if he remembers correctly. Jumpin' over the plants ain't gonna be a problem, no sir.

[gotacigarette]

Eden squeals in surprise, scaring all of the birds away and turns on Babe, her gun held up in a manner that's much more adult that her little body.

"Fuck!" she shouts, and then she takes off after him, not as quick as she'd like on little legs. "I'm going to bloody kill you, Babe Heffron!"

[yo_babe]

For her cursing, Babe's got the urge to say Ooooh! I'm telln' on yooouuu! The only reason he doesn't is because she's after him and all he can get out is, "Hoshit!"

Then, he's off, too, sprinting. His cowboy hat falls from his head, but the string catches on his neck and the hat bounces behind him. She's fast, too, regardless of being smaller, but Babe's even smaller than that and he darts over some bushes, then squats down behind them, panting for breath. Now what's that gonna do? She's seen him go there, or at least he thinks so.

[gotacigarette]

Eden sees where he went but plays at not, stalking around the bushes, making as little noise as she can. She drops low, trying to surprise him, trying to sneak up.

It's surprising her how fun all of this is.

[yo_babe]

Is this how most guys date a girl? Get turned into a kid again and play water guns with her? Babe's questioning it when he hears something and he turns, sending a spray of water blindly in the direction of the sound. He can just hear officers hollering at him not to waste ammo.

[gotacigarette]

The water misses her, just barely and she dives, pouncing from all fours and carrying them both down to the sand. She struggles to sit astride Babe's chest, pointing her gun square at his forehead.

"Gotcha."

[yo_babe]

Babe's gotta laugh (giggle?) 'cause after he's done tumbling with her and she's straddling him, he wants to kiss her and that's kinda weird at this age. That and having a water gun pressed against his forehead. He's never had to stare directly down the barrel of a gun, but he imagines this ain't even close.

"Ooh! I'm scared. Look! I'm shakin'," he says, holding up a steady hand.

[gotacigarette]

With as steady a hand as anything, Eden shoots a stream of water straight into Babe's forehead at close-range. It's weird, bloody weird, being this close to him, on top of him, and not really caring.

Welcome to being nine years old, Sinclair.

"Do I look like I care if you scared?" she says, raising both eyebrows.

[yo_babe]

She ain't playin' around with that thing. Babe's got water streaming down his face and he retaliates, tumbling over again with his own water pistol squirting at her. Two can play at this game, little girl or not.

[gotacigarette]

Eden's laughing breathlessly, now, doing her absolute best to shoot Babe in the ear, her hair clinging wetly across her forehead. Full of piss and vinegar. That was what Bill had always said about her. He hadn't know her at this age. Mostly, she'd been dying for someone to take an interest.

"Stop it," she squeals. "Babe!"

[yo_babe]

It's like when he's got a lizard that's been crawlin' up the side of a building and he's running around Front Street with the thing, making girls either scream or simply exclaim 'Eeeew!' He takes great delight in the little squeal of protest, upping the game with an assault of his fingers, tickling at her side.

[gotacigarette]

As a grown up, Babe looks skinny but there's deceptive strength in him, slip-sliding muscles under skin. As a kid, though, he's little. They must be around the same age, but Eden's got the height advantage and she squirms and kicks and cuffs at him until she rolls them again, turning over on the sand.