A/N- First part of a compilation of random short stories that I’ll write whenever I feel like it. Either in between writer’s block, or simply because of sudden quirky inspiration. The stories probably won’t have anything in common, except for their shortness. Hope you’ll enjoy.

1. Inside a tent, in the woods-

by Ola

I was staring at a piece of cloth. Rough to the touch, an indescribable brown color, stretched two feet over my head, and down to the sides, to form a ten by ten feet square of clear space. Surrounded by cloth. Brown cloth. Cut of from the outside world. A world full of brown leaves and brown tree trunks. What was the world’s fascination with brown those days? It wasn't even a pretty shade of it. Well, at least the brown of the tent wasn't. The brown of the leaves, I could deal with. And it wasn't really brown; more yellowish, sometimes even bordering on red. I liked red. Ezra wasn’t so enthusiastic about it, but then, he was the one who had chosen this brown one. It was his tent you see. And his idea to go camping out here. I rolled my eyes at him even though he was asleep, and it was dark to boot. I mean, who went camping in their backyard? A few yards away from the house? Ezra did. Ezra and I. Me because he had asked me to. And I couldn’t say no. A glance toward him was all it took to know that he was lying on his back, his head turned to the side toward me, a hand curled up right underneath his chin, while the other was lost somewhere underneath his sleeping bag. Even in his sleep he was smiling. He almost always did. That is how he slept. I still wished him pleasant dreams.

With a sigh that I kept relatively quiet to avoid waking him up, I rolled onto my side, and once again tried to go back to sleep. It’s not that I didn’t like camping. I wasn't afraid of the dark either. And there were no more of those damn mosquitoes at this time of the year. It also wasn't because Ezra was lying a foot away from me. Get your pick of which statements are true or not. More than one in either category. I felt like screaming in frustrations. Which would defeat the whole purpose of the quiet sigh. Which would wake Ezra up. Which would make him grumpy. Which would make me unhappy. Which… okay, it would just be bad.

I tried to concentrate on whatever sound I could hear to distract myself. Perhaps it would lull me to sleep. Leaves were rustling, branches were softly swaying. Much farther away, a dog barked. I rustled my blankets. … And Ezra murmured something.

I instantly froze at that sound. But after a moment of breathless pause on my part, his body followed his head, and he moved completely over, now lying half on his side, half on his stomach. And he still slept on. Only now he was encroaching on my part of the tent.

And obviously, I still couldn’t sleep.

I wondered what time it was. Probably somewhere around three or four in the morning now.

Sleep! I told myself. Maybe it would work. I closed my eyes, relaxed my muscles, breathed in deeply once, twice, th…

Some bug chirped loudly right near my ear and I nearly screamed my head off, sitting up so quickly that my head whirled. I panted and opened my eyes as wide as they would go, trying to locate the be-damned insect. Well, at least I hoped it was an insect. I didn’t really want to think what else it could be. I mean… this was Ezra’s backyard we were talking about. Exactly. It was Ezra’s backyard. I shuddered. Quite unwilling to settle back down, and harshly trying to suppress the whimper trying to escape from my tight throat.

I made myself look at Ezra, and at Ezra alone, pushing whatever was in my line of sight away. Well, there really wasn't much in the darkness. Let’s say I just chose not to discern anything else other than his form. My thoughts slowly calmed down and stopped their crazy whirling to now tread other paths. Yes, looking at Ezra had been a great idea. It quite successfully took my thoughts away from anything but him. Which posed their own sets of problems. But none about which I had to wonder now. He was well away in the land of dreams. See? He won’t wake up even if I poke him. Look.

I propped myself on my outstretched arm, leaned a bit over him, and poked him in between his ribs, right were the edge of his sleeping bag had been pushed away to show a bit of his t-shirt clad stomach. See? Still sleeping.

An unbidden smile stretched my lips, and I was hard pressed to stop the giggle that fought to escape me. I just found this whole situation hilarious somehow. It had started with a half hearted attempt at making me relax after a week long period of exams on Ezra’s part, and ended with me torturing the poor guy in his sleep. Well, that’s what he got for making me camp out in his backyard.

As my merciless fingers kept on poking him every so often, his brain finally caught up with his neurons, and he twitched away. Aha! I finally got a response from him! …Or not. He just mumbled something else under his breath …and simply turned around and slept on. Oh no, you don’t. My tongue stuck out of the corner of my mouth in concentration as I renewed my attempts. I grinned and poked him again enthusiastically. And he just kept on wriggling around a bit more. Hehehe. I was about to lean a bit more and try his other side when he suddenly batted away at the arm supporting me and growled out my name.

Needless to say, I yelped in fright, and fell on my face. Or rather… I fell on him. Ooof. Nicely cushioned by the sleeping bag, but still quite firm hardness of his chest.

“Would you mind telling me what the hell you’re doing?” I swear I could see him raise his eyebrows just by the tone of his voice. Oh oh. I’m in trouble.

“Mmmm… poking you?”

“Why?” What is this, twenty questions or something?

“Err…” I really had to think about it. And while my mind was lost somewhere, trying to justify my actions, the idiot suddenly turned the table around and now had me pinned under him, giving me back all the pokes I had bestowed on him.

One slight, tiny little problem though. I was ticklish as hell. And despite all my wriggling around and trials at escape from his merciless fingers, he was much stronger than me. What’s a ticklish girl to do? There's only so much torturous touches and pokes and strokes I can take while biting my lips to keep quiet and struggling for my life. And so I screamed. Or tried to. He stopped instantly and brought his hands to my mouth, making shushing sounds to make me stop. I did, but only because his fingers were no where near my stomach.

I glared at him, wondering if he could see the murderous look in my eyes in the dark. I could definitely see his smile, threatening to split his face in two. Go ahead. Laugh at my pain.

Slowly, he raised his hands away from my face, as if gauging whether I’d go back to screaming. I had half a mind to do it too, if it weren’t for his scary grandmother sleeping a few yards away in the house. So nope. I just kept on glaring at him.

Which only made him crack up and fall on his back. And if you know Ezra, you won’t ask why my lips stretched into a smile, then a laugh bubbled out of me too. He’s just like that. And so the torture turned into another sort of stomach pain. I laughed so hard that I had to hold my sides. It did actually hurt, and I tried to tell Ezra to stop making me laugh, but it only came out as giggles, and even though we couldn’t see each other quite clearly, every time I looked in his direction, and saw him bent double in laughter, it started me off again. Oh man, I haven’t laughed so hysterically in quite a while. I had also forgotten how tiring it is.

I thought my insides would burst, before we finally subsided into a giggling heap in the middle of the tent, and then to quiet sneakers and twitching limbs. Oh god. Hehehe.

“So… ready to go back to sleep? And stop trying to kill me in my slumber?” I nodded, then rolled my eyes since it was dark, and just breathed out a “yeah.”

“Good.” And with that one word, he dove back into his sleeping bag, wriggled around for a bit –and I heard a distinct “zzzzzip” coming off from somewhere in his direction- only to resurface a second later, now lying down in the right direction. I was about to do the same, well, except without the diving, the wriggling, the zipping, the…

“Ack!”

And with the snuggling of a warm arm around my waist, bringing me closer to an equally warm body. Mmm… maybe I really was ready to go back to sleep. With a smile on my face, I cuddled closer, and forgot about the bugs, the dark, and the chilly wind swaying the trees. There was no better place to sleep than Ezra’s backyard.

And there was no better place than right in his arms.