025: Rocket slide

Kell inclined his head and pointed toward the playground. Maille began walking toward it. When they got to the sand, they kicked off their shoes and Kell led her to the swing and began pushing her on it. After a while Maille leaned back, upside down and let her hair drag in the sand.

"Kell, why do you want to know about the church?"

"For the respect it engenders."

"And is that why you have befriended me?"

He followed her thoughts as easily as if he could read them. "No." he said.

"Why then?" she asked as she swung away from him, her hair still dragging like a curtain.

"Because."

"Because, what? I mean, Kell you barely know me."

"I know you better than you think."

"And I barely know you." she insisted.

"You know me quite well."

"How could I know you? You hardly talk to me."

"Words don't always make the person, Maille, I know you not so much for what you say as for how you react."

"What made you want to befriend me? Is it because I'm Steve's sister-in-law? I know about the church?"

She wasn't pulling any punches. "No." he said and slowed the swing to pull it back so they were looking at each other upside down but from a very close angle. Her face was red.

"So why then?"

"Why are you pushing this Maille?"

"I want to know."

"No, you don't."

"Why? Is it some twisted perverted reason? Why Kell? Why have you gone to all this trouble?"

Kell let the swing go and Maille sailed away from him. He was gone when she returned and she sat up and looked around. Kell had climbed the rocket tower slide on all fours like the monkey he owned, and now he was skirting the outside of the tower.

Maille hopped off the swing and recklessly pursued him, climbing the slide and then ducking into the inside and climbing to the top. She lay flat on the hard cool metal, and tapped on his fingers as he circled the tower on the outside.

"Kell?"

"What Maille?"

"Why?"

"Because I saw you cry."

Maille was silent, remembering the wardrobe, the way she'd felt then about her sisters' rejection and her miserable life. She remembered the gruffness in his voice as he'd handed her his hankie. A moment of tenderness in an otherwise bleak world. He offered and she was accepting.

"Trust me, Maille?"

"Kell ..."

But he jumped down to the ground, and Maille gasped, leaning over the edge to see down to the bottom. Kell had landed lithely on all fours. He looked up, her heart was in her mouth. He leaped to the slide again and climbed the inside this time reaching the top as she settled herself, withdrawn and closed off, her arms hugging her knees.

Kell crawled over to her and sat next to her very close, his leg deliberately touching hers, forcing the issue. Forcing her to pay attention to him.

"Don't." she said.

"Don't what?"

"Don't touch me." she moved away, Kell followed. "Kell, stop it."

"Ahhh ...." he chuckled knowingly. "Touching me makes your skin crawl, doesn't it?"

"My skin crawl? No. I just don't want you to touch me right now."

"Ah, having a homophobic moment, are we?"

"Knock it off, Kell. I'm not homophobic."

"You are."

"I'm not."

He pressed his leg to hers and then grabbed her band and laced the fingers with his own. He pulled her slender body closer to his and bent his face to hers. "You're afraid of me?"

She shook her head now, irritated, and bewildered by what she was feeling and wasn't feeling. For some reason, his nearness right now bothered her, maybe because he was being so obstinate, maybe because she was feeling confused. But not because he was gay. That had nothing to do with it, and his saying it did made her angry. He knew damn well it didn't. He was just saying that to get her mad.

She tried to pull away but Kell pulled her fingers to his lips and blew on them. Maille froze. Her heart jumped into her throat and she felt a sting of tears behind her eyelids. How could he do that to her in just a few days? Was she so vulnerable right now that any little thing could set her off? She raised her eyes to his and watched as he drew her little pinky finger to his lips and gently put it in his mouth. It wasn't exactly a kiss, but much more intimate. He actually sucked the end of her little finger. She could feel the softness of his lips, the warmth and pressure of his tongue. She didn't know what to do.

The rocket tower seemed to spin.

"What are you doing?" she breathed out, and her voice sounded strange to her ears. Kell blew on her fingers again, still holding them laced with his own. At first he wasn't looking at anything but her finger, as he held it to his lips, but eventually, his eyes peered up and caught hers.

"What do you think?"

"I don't know." she whispered as he slowly did it again, keeping his eyes pointedly on hers, which had closed now. The lashes a dark smudge against a bloom of pink.

Kell smiled. "Taking it to another level."

"Level?"

"Trust me, Maille." his voice was that low soft, distinctly Kell voice. She tried to pull away again, but laced fingers didn't pull easily.

"Kell..."

"Just for you, Maille... only you." he whispered and bent his face toward hers, but at the last second drew away before she could open her eyes.

She'd felt him come close. Her lips parted naturally, only she didn't know why and she felt a sigh of something very like disappointment. Kell smiled and pulled her to the stairway and slithered down, pulling her also, and they walked down the slide together. He caught her at the bottom and laced her fingers with his.

Maille stumbled. Kell caught her and kept her upright. His smile was soft. They walked back toward his car and the caged monkey .

*****