Apocalypsis 02 - Warpaint

tell me you don’t think I’m cute.” He winked at me.
    I tried to stay serious and mad, but it was nearly impossible. “No. You’re not cute at all when you’re dunking me in the swamp.”
    “Hey, you can’t blame dat on me. You attacked me first. I wass chust doing da evasiff maneuvers dat you taught me.”
    “I didn’t teach you that crap.”
    “Yes you dit. You are a very good teacher. Maybe now you can let me teach you a few things.” He reached over and pulled me up against him.
    “You must seriously have a death wish,” I said leaning away to look at him.
    “No. You don’t scare me. I like mean girlss.”
    “I’m not mean,” I insisted. “I’m just a little forceful sometimes.”
    “Well, I like forceful girls, den. Give da moron a kiss, forceful girl.”
    “No.”
    “Kiss me,” he said, puckering up and closing his eyes, leaning forward.
    He had to know that he was putting himself in a very vulnerable position like that, but I just didn’t have the heart to take advantage of it, even though I was still a little tempted to knock him on in the kisser - if for no other reason than to slap that cocky look off his face.
    I leaned over and kissed him quickly. “There. Now go away. You smell like gator doodles.”
    “You do too.” He inhaled deeply. “Oh, da smell of my love. I will never forget it.”
    I pushed him away and stood up. “I’m going to take a shower. Stay away.”
    He pouted. “I need one too. Let’s save da water and go togedder.”
    “No,” I said firmly.
    “You are afraid of me, I think.”
    “I might be afraid of what you’ll try to do, yes. But I’m not afraid of you like you think.”
    “Ah. Well, at least you admit it.” He stood up. “I’m going to go see Nina. You should come.”
    “Speaking of Nina … are you going to tell Peter?”
    “Yes. Eventually.”
    “I think you should tell him soon. If he finds out otherwise, he’ll be hurt you didn’t tell him.”
    “Okay. Maybe tomorrow. I can take him dare. And you too, if you want.” He sounded suddenly shy.
    I shrugged. “Sure. Sounds fun.”
    We parted ways, him going to see his hawk and me going to get the muck off of me. I couldn’t wait to feel the cool water rinsing of the smelly gator doodle. Hopefully my new moccasins would be waiting for me when I got back.
    ***
    Following our afternoon naps, where we tried to sleep through the hottest part of the day and were only minimally successful, we brought our early dinner back to the hut and ate, just the four of us, Buster included. He looked wistfully at Trip as we left the ceremonial hut with our plates, but finally decided he’d throw his lot in with us. Peter helped sway him in our favor by handing him a hunk of his favorite snake meat.
    We sat down in the kitchen area and chatted about the upcoming plans while we munched on our food.
    “Are you ready for full-on recon training?” asked Peter.
    “Yeah, I guess. I don’t plan on doing anything different than normal. Just maybe to emphasize more of the harsher moves. We don’t have time to play around.”
    “What I don’t understand is how it’s going to help against the weapons they have,” said Peter, nibbling on the edge of a hunk of dry bread.
    “Well, if they come at us using guns from a distance, it won’t. But hand-to-hand combat, yes. Even if they have weapons, I can usually deal with it. I’m not sure that I’ll be able to get anyone else ready for that, but I’m going to try.”
    “Do you want me to have some guns and knives for you at the training?”
    “Yes. That would be great, actually. Thanks, Peter.” I smiled at my little manager. He was so organized. “Get some dull knives to start with if they have any.”
    “Will do.”
    “Peter, I want to tell you something,” said Bodo, sounding very formal. There was no mistaking how important this announcement was to him.
    Peter put his plate down. “Okaaaay … shoot.”
    “Well, dare’s dis thing. Maybe a little secret.”
    “About who?”
    “About me.”
    Peter narrowed his eyes. “You’re not going to tell me you’re gay, are you? Because I totally do not buy that.”
    Bodo looked confused. “Gay? No. Dat’s not … no. I’m not gay. I like Bryn. I’m sorry if dat hurts your feelings, dough.”
    “No. Not at all. You’re not my type. Go ahead, then. Tell me your big secret.”
    “I’m not your type? What’s dat mean?” Bodo sounded offended now.
    “You’re too … I don’t know. Big.