Private Finished Camping Madness

"Well, city boys can turn into rugged country boys in no time! Just gotta get a little dirt on your hands," she said, patting his back with a laugh. "I'll take you out camping 'til you have the duck call down flat, Shortcake."

"Yeah, I know you ain't nothing like that! I ain't nothing like that either--mama always told me to give a boy something to chase after; don't give in so easily, y'know?" She snorted and loosened her grip to balance her elbows on his shoulders. "But now I'm telling you all my boy secrets, and that ain't good! But it's alright. Gotta get out of that 'that's my roommate' mindset first--I wouldn't go rolling around with my roommate, and I don't think you would either."

Her cheeks turned hot and her mouth snapped shut when he pointed out that yes he definitely knew she forgot her tent. "....Okay, yeah, maybe I did forget my tent--don't make fun of me!" She huffed and pulled away, going quick to puuull her sleeping bag out of her backpack. With the sleeping bag in hand, she dove into Ash's (her) tent to claim a spot of her own. "You better not kick me in your sleep or nothing! 'N I'll have to smother you with a pillow if you snore; you'll attract bears thinking you're trying to make cubs."

"Hey, you're not awake when you're snoring! You dunno what I have to go through every night," she fake wept and returned his kiss. When he kissed her though, she went to take off her boot and plant her foot in his side to shove him back towards his side of the tent. She laughed, "You know I'm ticklish, dang it!"

Maisie jabbed him gently in the ribs with her toes. "I ain't no 'southern belle!' Look at me--I roll around in the dirt and curse and snort a whole bunch; that ain't very dainty and ladylike at all, if you ask me. Them gals can't even tell one end of a tractor from another." She huffed, though he could tell she wasn't really offended.

"...If you want to read my smuts, all you gotta do is say so," she said, teasing him lightly. Maisie sat up to start pulling books out of her bag, tossing them onto the tent floor. "What do you prefer more, shirtless buff guys whose arms are bigger than your head, or shirtless athletic vampires with brooding aphrodisiac eyes? And no, there ain't any clothed options. They're all shirtless and have lots of dirty sexy things in them." She held up a particularly raunchy cover and held it out to him, a grin on her face. "I bet you'd like this one a lot."

"Well unless this author met you and got a good look inside your pants, it sounds like one big coincidence to me--a good one, though," she laughed, pulling the book back to flip through the pages. Maisie glanced over at him and flicked his forehead for his creepy eye comment. "If your eyes are creepy, I got a thing for horror. Feels like I'm the only other one alive when they're looking at me."

She stuck her tongue out and bapped him with the raunchy book. "A girl's gotta live out her fantasies through books, y'know? Lot of the stuff I read is actually what I'm interested in, so reading about it is bound to make me go red."

"So, Shortcake," she mimicked and reached across him to set the book down. She pulled back and rested on her side, facing him with her head on her pillow. "They always had one of them hunches--I don't think they'll be surprised. They sure will ask for lots of pictures, though; gotta put on my best sundress for those. Gotta look like a doll with no cleavage next to my handsome man so they know we ain't up to no good and are definitely a fully functional couple."

"A horror film monster who ain't very scary! 'Til you start popping up in the middle of the night, I mean. I'm still sorry about the baseball bat incident." Maisie leaned over to kiss his hair in the general area that she'd probably hit it all those weeks ago. "But yeah, mayyybe I do. Or maybe I just got a thing for you."

She kissed him back and blinked at him. "Alright, we can just get ourselves painted then! Ain't nothing stopping me and my family from getting a good picture of you. We can just send a big ol' canvas over and they can hang it on the wall, and we'll be immortalized as long as the house doesn't burn down."

Maisie petted Ash's hair and leaned her head against his. She knew that this whole vampire thing was a bother for him, so something as little as not being able to show up in pictures probably meant a lot more to him than it did to her. "It'll be alright, I promise. You don't mind getting painted or sketched, right? Involves a loooot of sitting around in the exact same position for hours. And my family won't mind disembodied voices; they'll just be happy that you exist and care for me. Besides, they can see you if and when you come visit!" She gave him a big smooch and wrapped an arm around him to hug him close.

Maisie smiled softly when he pinched her cheek, but she huffed and scowled at him for the pinch. Rude. "You're still determined to get that sun charm, huh? Must be awful important to you. I'll go ahead and give my parents the heads-up then, since you're serious about it. They'll have the whole place set up for our visit by tomorrow."

"Teach you some things? Well, step one, don't be afraid to get dirty! That's basically it; as long as you don't mind gettin a little dirt in your hair, you can do anything on the farm. Lotta the issues with city-people is that they hate not being clean, so they gotta tip-toe around in the mud and refuse to touch a rope or a cow if it isn't completely sanitized. And I'm sure they won't care none, those lil guys; long as you give them food, water, and attention. Like me."

Maisie sat back and hummed, staring up at the roof of their tent. She squinted like she was trying to see through the fabric. "Think the sun's going down yet? We've spent an awful lot of time out here. First day....I would say done, but there's so much more to do if we don't set it in stone. Like build a fort or go star-hunting."