just vibing

You can't feel your legs.

The soft crunch of twigs and leaves underneath your feet is all you can focus on. Sweat beads down your face and body as you climb higher and higher into the vast wilderness before you.

"We're almost there, it's just up ahead!"

Sloan's cheerful voice makes your head perk up to look at them. The happy expression on their face means everything to you, so you bit your tongue and didn't complain about a little exercise... but your body was on fire and your heart was beating out of control. You weren't sure how much longer you would last out here. You glance back down at the ground.

The buzzing of cicadas grow louder in your ears.

"Do– you think– we could take a– break?" You huff.

"Huh?"

Sloan turns back to look at you, but all you can see is the burning sun in the sky. You don't even remember falling.

"Oh my God! [Y/N], hold on!"

You feel them lifting up your body near effortlessly before completely blacking out from over exertion.

...

"[Y/N]?"

You can hear the worry in Sloan's voice. The awareness slowly comes back into your body as you feel cold water pour into your mouth and you swallow it with relief. You have a lot of questions, but they only seem to be coming out as muffled groans of confusion.

"I am so, so sorry..."

Your eyes flutter open finally and you see your beloveds face hovering over yours. You were resting your head safely on their lap. They pour more water into your mouth and wipe down your forehead with a damped piece of fabric. It all felt so nice in the sweltering heat.

"Did we make it?" Your voice is raspy and tired.

"No. I headed back to the campsite as soon as you passed out. I was going to take you to the hospital until you woke up just now."

You frown. You can't help but feel like you ruined the trip for them.

"I'm sorry."

"No need to be sorry Cariño, it's my fault."

They adjust your body so you're laying down on a soft surface inside the tent the two of you shared.

"We'll go home soon, alright?" They lean down to place a kiss to your cheek.

"But what about hiking? I know you were excited."

"I've hiked this trail before, so it's nothing new to me." They nuzzle your face gently to bring you some comfort. "You matter more to me than that."

You bring your hand up to cup their face and they place another kiss on your face before sitting upright again.

"We can spend another night here and we'll go home, okay?"

You nod and they hand you a half empty cold bottle of water. Without hesitation you drink the rest of it before they wipe down your face again.

"Oh! That reminds me!"

Sloan unzips the tent and rushes outside. You can see the flicker of a campfire nearby– apparently you were out for longer than you expected. They reenter the tent with a paper plate stacked high with freshly made s'mores.

"I made you these so you can feel better!" There was a childlike excitement in their voice, followed by a grin.

They help you slowly sit upright before letting you lean against their body for support. You reach for the treat they brought you and it turns to a gooey mess of sugar in your mouth. Immediately all of the negativity that today had brought melts away.

"Thank you," You smile.

"And I got this from the vending machine because s'mores and water is just wrong..."

They hand you a cold bottle of milk. You screw off the lid and you finish off the chocolatey marshmallow goodness. You pick up a second s'more and offer it to Sloan as a form of gratitude.

"No! These are yours! I feel awful after everything that happened today..."

You shake your head. "I want to share. You have to take it!" You insist. "Besides, you got me back to safety. I think you deserve a reward for that."

They hesitantly take the treat from you and chomp down on it. Their face lights up with happiness.

"And we can share the milk, too." You offer them a drink and they take it without a second thought.

The two of you sit in silence as you finish off the stack of s'mores and milk together, exchanging glances of contentment as the sun sets below the horizon. The sound of singing crickets surrounds you as the sleepiness set in.

"Even if we didn't make it to the top, I'm still glad we had fun today." Sloan grabs a blanket from their backpack and begins rolling it out for the two of you. "I mean– passing out isn't fun, I'm talking about the s'mores. S'mores are fun! Nearly dying of heat stroke definitely isn't."

You can't help but giggle at their cuteness.

"I know what you mean. Being brought to safety by a cutie pie is also very fun."

They blush from your compliment as they join you underneath the blanket. "Aww, it wasn't a big deal..." They catch themself again. "I mean– it was! I mean–"

You place a kiss to their lips to stop them from yapping.

"Go to sleep. I'll see you in the morning." You reassure them.

You press down the gauze onto the fresh wound on their arm, soaking up as much as the blood as you could manage. Within minutes it soaks the tight knit fabric a dark crimson red and you discard it into the nearby bloody scrap pile. You take another piece of clean, dry gauze and apply pressure to the area before wrapping it up and taping it off. Sloan winces and grits their teeth from your rough care.

"So..." You continue to treat their wounds as they watch. "You really did all of that? By yourself?" You ask.

Tears formed in their eyes as you dug into another wound to clean it. They blink them away before you can notice–

"Sure did!" They grin.

"Didn't we have this talk before?" You chide. The grin on their face immediately fades.

"Yeah, but if things went bad I could've gotten out of there no problem." They attempt to mask the defensiveness in their voice. You sigh and continue your cleaning and dressing.

Your soft, warm hands continue gently wrapping layers of fresh gauze around Sloan's clean wounds. The silence between the two of you feels immense. Without pressing the matter further, you finish up your work and move on to the next noticeable injury. However, there are several other cuts and scrapes across their skin, so you definitely had your work cut out for you tonight. At least the worst of the worst were already taken care of.

A laugh escapes their throat and you raise an eyebrow in curiosity.

"You're turning me into a mummy!" They joke.

You shake your head and sigh once more. They pout in response.

"Jeez, tough crowd." They add.

You hold back your frustration as you roll up their jeans to reveal more injuries in need of treatment. Once again you begin to wipe their skin clean with medicine and discard all bloody cloth into the growing mountain of medical trash. Your anger is evident in your body language.

"Hmph. Angela wouldn't be this mad–" You cut them off and they're caught by surprise. You shoot straight up and scowl.

"Well I'm not Angela, okay?" You argue, angrily tightening the cloth around their leg. They audibly express pain from your harshness.

You turn around for a moment and look for more medicine. Everything you grab lightly stains the container and their labels red in the shape of gloved fingers.

"I... didn't mean it like that..." There's noticeable guilt in their voice.

"You really just don't get it, do you?" You bite your cheek to stop yourself from further outbursts.

"Get what? That artifact was important to me–"

"And you're important to me!" You turn on your heels and meet their gaze directly. "You really think you could take on Talon all by yourself and not get hurt? You could have died!" You cry.

They blush and look away. "Aww come on, it wasn't that bad..."

"Wasn't that bad?! Look at your arms! I'm not even done with you yet! What were you thinking?" Tears of frustration form in your eyes.

Sloan is quiet again as the realization hits. They look down at their disheveled clothes and half patched up body. Oh my God– you were right...

You open your mouth to start yelling again but you stop when you feel their arms wrap around your waist. They nuzzle against your warm skin and close their eyes.

"I'm sorry." They admit.

You let out another sigh and affectionately pat their head in defeat.

"You really should take better care of yourself. I can only fix so much. What you did was extremely brave and admirable, but it was also extremely stupid and reckless–" You stop yourself mid lecture so you wouldn't make them feel worse than they already did. "What I'm trying to say is... archeology is important to you, and you're important to me. There will always be more treasure to uncover but there's only one of you. You can't ever be replaced, you know?"

They sniffle and hug you closer. You continue comforting them to the best of your ability as their emotions pour out onto your soiled shirt. You remove your stained gloves and reach into your coat pocket for an emergency lemon lollipop.

"Here." You take off the wrapper and hand the sweet to them. Immediately their eyes light up with joy, and they quickly wipe away their tears on their jacket sleeve.

"Aww yeah! You're the best!" They immediately pop the sweet into their mouth. "Thanks!" They mumble with a full mouth.

"This is not an excuse to forget what I just told you."

You take your hand and tilt their head up. From a nearby glove box you grab a pair of clean gloves and get back to work.

"I won't forget! I promise!"

"Isn't that what you said last time?" You remind them.

They remove the lollipop from their mouth and look at you in full seriousness.

"I promise I'll be more careful! You're my treasure. No one else is allowed to discover you. Finders keepers!"

You couldn't help but smile from the cheesiness.

Satisfied with your expression, they continue eating away at their lollipop. You continue to hold their face carefully while wiping away the dirt, grime and blood. As an extra treat you reach into your pocket again and place a skeleton bandaid on their cheek across a minor scrape they obtained.

"Alright. I think you're good to go. Don't get into anymore trouble, okay?" You ask them, borderline begging for them to be safer in the future.

"Finders keepers." They repeat, hopping off the table.

You finally toss the huge mess you made into the garbage and wash your hands. They head for the door before they stop dead in their tracks. They flick their leftover lollipop stick into the trash.

"Oh! I almost forgot!" They walk over to you and place a kiss to your lips.

"Finders keepers..." They smile. "But you make it hard to want to stay safe because I love seeing you."

You blush and let out a tiny giggle.

"You're my favorite patient. Just don't get maimed, alright?" You swat at them lightly. "I'm serious. Doctors orders."

"Sure thing, Doc. Are you free this Saturday by any chance?" A cheeky grin lights up their face.

"Only if you can go the rest of the week without getting injured." You place your hands on your hips and put on your serious face.

"You betcha!" Their grin somehow widens further as they spin around and head for the door.

You wait for them to fully leave before leaning back on the table and crossing your arms.

After a long day of work at the dig site, the two of you help eachother wind down and get ready for sleep. Sitting close by the fire, you help them clean up.

Holding the tissues you brought with you in hand, you began gently wiping Ventures face from all the dirt and dust as they sat slightly hunched over to help you reach better.

"Aw come on, do we really have to?" They playfully whined with a weak laugh, not truly being against this but they would rather be asleep right now.

"Oh shush" you replied with a soft smile, playfully wiping their lips to keep Venture quiet, their complaints now muffled.

You knew Venture would crawl into their tent all dusty and not see a problem with it, focused only on the excitement of getting back to work first thing in the very early morning. But knowing you- they knew you wouldn't let that happen.

After wiping their mouth clean you pause, staring at their lips, thoughts trailing somewhere else, somewhere pleasant, while your other hand cupped their face and thumb began to stroke their features...

Venture noticed your pause after a moment and blushed averting their eyes. Not knowing what to do they cleared their throat.

"Hm? Oh!" You caught yourself.

You yourself were now blushing while you continued your work. Now wiping their eyebrows, cheeks and then nose. A chill visibly ran through your body as the cold night wind picked up ever so slightly. You gently tilt Ventures face to get their chin and neck as well, trying not too be overly obvious while staring at their tattoo. The touch of your fingers, soft and slow, was so soothing to them, so sweet and comforting, relaxing even. They'd fall asleep in your hands any moment you worried.

They draw out a big, exaggerated yawn.

"Mmmokay!" they exclaim as they quickly pat their thighs before getting up in what seemed to be a hurry.

"Since we are done here-" Venture turned while dragging you by the hand as if you two agreed prior to whatever they were planning now.

"Huh??!"

Venture turned to you with an innocent look and their lips pouted slightly before they defend themselves "I mean, the night is cold, i thought we could- uh -share my tent and keep eachother warm?"

You just stare at eachother for a moment before you speak.

"I uh, sure, it is rather... cold" You're not sure how else to answer, too focused on the idea of being so close as to share a tent with them.

"Cool!"

Hands still intertwined, theirs much rougher to the touch than yours, you walked over to Ventures humble tent which was only a couple steps away from the fire. You wished it wasn't so close...

...

Venture let you crawl in first and the tent seemed pretty spacious at first, with soft bedding spread beneath and a small oil lamp next to the pillow, until Venture crawled in after you. Venture is broad and tall after all, you wondered how they even fit here without you.

You were propped up on your elbow as you watched Venture fluff up the pillow for the both of you, finally resting their head on one end. Their eyes looked deeply into yours, an invitation.

You haven't been this close with them ever before, your stomach quickly began doing somersaults at this realization, heart pumping faster. There was no backing out now, you yearned for their warmth.

Having to scoot a little closer, you lay down next to them, fitting your head on the other end of the pillow. Your faces were close, so close you could see Ventures eyes gleam with the soft glow cast from the oil lamp, the light catching the shine of their eyebrow piercing as well. In turn, they observed your face and its shine.

There was a silence between you two, a comfortable yet tense one. The sound of your calm breathes filled the tent, accompanied by the crackling of the campfire outside. Even further out crickets and other bugs could be heard singing their lullabies quietly, as if they knew not to disturb this moment.

You decide then to be bold and run your fingers, hesitantly at first as if afraid to be burnt, through Ventures wild locks. They were so soft yet thick and- dirt... grains of dirt and sand fell from Ventures strands, only a few but noticeable to you.

You clicked your tongue. "Guess i missed a spot" you scold yourself.

"Its okay" They take your hand in theirs and rest them between the two of you, giving yours a squeeze " you can get it next time" Venture said with a lazy smile, letting their chipped tooth peak through their lips. Their thumb running circles onto your palm.

The lack of distance between you became comfortable soon, so Venture decided to to shrink it even further when they laid their hand on your lower back grasping it, your body instinctively stiffened at their unannounced touch and they yanked you closer. Bodies pressing against one another, noses almost touching. Your heart picked up the pace again, thumping in response before Ventures hand started trailing further down all the while you still maintained eye contact.

With confidence Venture ran their large hand down your back, then hip, then thigh, then leg, hooking a hand under your knee on their way up and lifting your leg letting it snake around theirs.

Seeing you were still red and stunned by their advances, Venture decided to help you out. Taking your hand in theirs they guided it to their waist, firmly leaving it there. You got the hint and held them as their hand returned to your thigh.

Breaking that intense eye contact you had to close your eyes for a moment, the situation becoming a lot for you all at once, all too quickly. But then, all of the sudden a surge of energy rushed through your body and you kissed Venture. You kissed them, placing a sweet but small kiss on their lips and let it linger for only a short second before pulling away, now watching their reaction.

Ventures face was beaming like a thousand suns, they didn't think you had it in you and as a reward they returned the favour. With confidence they kissed you passionately yet gently, only for a moment, before pulling away and then kissing you once more. You locked eyes again while exchanging sweet smiles, yours shy, their smug.