uncharted_fics | quick little fic! (Reply)

Title: Burned
Prompt: Color
Summary:
Author: Grab Bag
Rating: T
Word Count: ~630
Chapters: 1
Character(s): Nathan, Elena
Pairing(s): NatexElena
Spoilers/Warnings: none

Elena pulled aside the canvas flap of the tent and hissed in pain as she slipped inside. Nate looked up from where he sat bare foot and cross-legged on his bedroll. The papers spread across his lap fluttered with the slight evening breeze that snuck in with her. The bulk of their research was on Nate's computer at home, but they'd still needed the stacks of felt-tip marked maps and penciled-in translations stapled to color photographs for the scouting expedition.
"What happened?" Nate asked, his mouth quirked up at the corner. "Walk into another tree?"
Elena glared at him. "I still maintain that you ought to hold branches aside until all of me walks past them, not just the parts you're thinking about at the time."
"I was startled. I thought I saw your cup size increase." Nate wiggled his eyebrows at her; she couldn't help but smile as she glanced down and shrugged.
"No," Elena said, wincing slightly as she removed her belt with noticeably gentle movements. "I did not walk into a tree." Kicking her shoes into a shadowed corner of the tent, she turned so that her back faced him and lifted the hem of her shirt. "Remember when I told you I'd put on enough sunscreen this morning? I was wrong."
Nate's face screwed up involuntarily-- her normally fair skin from the small of her back to the top of her pants was, even in the electric lamplight, very clearly an angry red.
"Ouch. You really got some color today, didn't you?" Nate resisted the urge to reach out and poke her, to see the fingerprint turn white and then immediately disappear. "What were you doing, running around topless?"
"You wish. There are better places for that than the jungle you know." Elena sighed and sank down to her knees on her bedroll. "No, I think my shirt just rode up while I was out there sifting through dirt and photographing old pottery shards." She crawled forwards, stretching out until she lay prone on her sleeping bag. The shirt remained rucked up around her waist, but her body still stung. "God, this job can be so boring sometimes, and all I get to show for it is a second-degree burn."
"Hold on a second, I've got it." She heard a shuffle of papers, then Nate rustling around in his bag. A moment later, his hand was on her shoulder and she turned to face him. He held a small bottle up to her nose so close she nearly went cross-eyed.
"Here we are. Aloe. Am I your savior or what?"
"Nate, I can't reach--"
"Lay still then."
His hands were familiarly rough and calloused over her tender skin at first as he pushed her shirt up, and Elena sucked in a little breath. But then a moment later, she heard the soft liquid noise of the aloe lotion squirting into his palms, and then impossibly soft coolness rubbing gently over her back. She could feel the heat radiating from her burn, evaporating at first, then warming the lotion as his hands danced along her skin. The sweeping circular motions were soothing, and the exhaustion of the day swept over her very suddenly. Pity.
"Have I told you you're very good with your hands?" Elena said through a yawn as her eyes fluttered closed. Although she couldn't see it, Nate's tiny smile matched the one playing at the corners of her lips.
"If you weren't so clearly wiped out, I'd find other ways to make you say it again," he said as he pressed a kiss to her cheek.
"Tomorrow," she murmured. "Think of things I don't need to lay on my back for in the meantime." Nate raised his eyebrows in appreciation, but Elena had already drifted off to sleep.