Anne Shirley

[ continued from here ]

If Matthew hadn't been there, or if they hadn't been in so public a place, Anne might well have carried Ariel's attentions forward to where they naturally might go.

"Is it time to go home?" she said softly, moving only so far from Ariel as she needed to speak. "Or shall we keep one another company right here?"

"If we move Matthew he might need our attention," Ariel said, the corners of her mouth turned up in a smile. She pressed her mouth to Anne's to quiet any reply she might try to make, and slipped a hand up Anne's side to the swell of her breast. Her fingers traced the seam of the fabric, her thumb brushing close to the nipple.

Oh, the things Anne had been convinced to do every since she met Ariel! Matthew had fallen asleep in his bassinet and was so nearby that they needn't worry about him, but they were still outdoors, even in so secluded a corner as they were.

But Anne could not argue that Ariel's touch felt especially good, and if they could not do something so special and memorable on her birthday, well, there would never be a better time.

And so Anne did nothing to stop her as Ariel began her familiar caresses.

Anne practically flew out of the compound and towards the party, keeping her eyes open for Ariel's distinctive hair. There were a lot of people she wanted to talk to, but only one she wanted to talk to right now, and she wasn't going to stop searching till she found her no matter who might've tried to stop her to congratulate her.

She finally found Ariel outside the Hub but near the food, and without saying a word excitedly pulled her away from the crowd so that they might find some privacy. A walk behind the compound, through the garden, ought to be perfect.

Anne had certainly been kept busy in the wake of the giant waves, when a great number of people had visited the IPD office to learn just what had occured and determine what was to be done about those persons had been temporarily displaced. But as dedicated as she was to her duty, she did not hesitate to abandon her post when she heard that Ariel had been brough in to the clinic (and not only Ariel but others, though Ariel's name was the only one that stuck in her head.)

"Oh my goodness," she said, clutching at Ariel's hand as soon as she found her. "Oh Ariel, what's happened?"

There was a well-worn path now, winding from Anne's hut and across the main path through the Hamlet to Ariel's hut. The amount of time Anne spent traversing it, she thought maybe she ought to line it with stones or flowers or something pretty, but that thought always dashed from her head when she saw Ariel and her mind flitted to other things.

"I brought bananas," she said, displaying them as she approached Ariel with a radiant smile on her face. "The tiny sweet ones; I found some growing not far from my hut. These are the ones you like, right?"

Anne still hadn't fluffed up her bed to quite the way she liked it, but she could go out in the morning and gather some more leaves and grasses to stuff under her blankets; she didn't need to fix it right that moment. Perhaps she could even figure out how to build a real bedframe, though that was certainly not a priority. Still, the not-quite-fluffed bed -- or at least, that's what she assumed the problem was - left her tossing and turning a little, not sleeping quite so well as she had when she had been sharing a bed with Ariel.

That was how she came to be drowsy but awake, lying in bed after dark, when she heard some faint noises from outside her hut. It could certainly have been an animal, for there were a great many in the jungle, but Anne still called out softly.

"Who is it? Who's out there?"

"Ariel!" called Anne, pushing her way past a thick, hanging vine. She felt like they'd been looking forever, but she was determined to keep going, for as long as she could. "Billy! Ariel!"

There was a noise from somewhere ahead that brought her up short. Not that they hadn't been hearing the noises of the jungle creatures all along, but this one was different, she could just tell.

"Joe! Joe, did you hear that?"