A Big Shiny Blue Marble Ch. 19

He walked from there to another chamber and he lifted a pot of water, "I try to keep a lot of these filled so that they warm up a little. I was gonna make stew today anyway, so I cooked up some meat. It's cooked and all, barely, but I just need to cut it up some more for you. This is the pot that I'll make our soup in, ok?"

He'd added that as a bit of a joke, knowing that she couldn't understand, but she surprised him when she smiled and replied, "Ok," with a tiny laugh. She was pleased to have found a word that could be used as both a question and a reply.

He stood at a really rough hewn table and set the pot down. Walking over to a hook hanging from a tree trunk embedded in either wall, he cut a portion from some cooked meat hanging there and with a lot of rinsing, he cut it up into rough cubes which he threw into the pot.

Yuan watched him and admired the way that his body moved. Every once in a while, she managed to get a brief look at his genitals without being obvious about it, and she was a little pleased to see that they seemed to be recovering from the way that they'd looked to her at first when he'd taken his wet clothing off. If he noticed it, Billy said nothing.

He reached for a plastic bag and removed some dried vegetables to throw them in as well, doing his best to get them to sink, but he supposed that once they'd been in the water for long enough, they'd do that anyway.

"I got these out of a bunch of preserved rations that I had. It said they're freeze-dried, but I don't know what that means. All I know is that they'll swell up in hot water, and they'll go good in soup or stew." He found his little container of salt and sprinkled a bit in as well before he turned to look for a bit of fat on the meat hanging up. Satisfied, he walked back to the table and began to cut it up as well.

"Well it's fat," he said, "You need a little bit of fat if you're gonna make some half-decent soup."

He didn't see it, but she wasn't looking at the soup right then.

She didn't know the meaning of the word, but she wanted for him to understand that she'd been listening, so she tore her gaze away from what he had between his muscular legs, "Fat," she repeated with a nod.

"You don't really understand any of what I'm saying, do you?" he asked with a smile.

"Fat ok," she smiled very hopefully, not having a clue, and he laughed.

She watched the way that his bicep swelled as he picked up the full pot of soup that wasn't soup yet and carried it to hang it near the heat of the fire in the other room.

"Come on," he smiled at her, "Let's get you warm."

"Ok," she smiled, and they laughed at each other.

He pointed at the other sleeping bag, "Please lie down."

Yuan blinked at him. She understood what he wanted, she just, ... didn't want to lie there while he was off doing all sorts of things. She wanted to be in the same room with him at least.

Billy looked concerned again, "Hey, the soup's gonna take a long time before it's ready to eat. I really wish that I had some good bread now. I make it once in a while, but I haven't for a time. I'm trying to make the flour that I've got last until spring. After that, I'll have to see about finding something else to use as flour. I think I read somewhere that you can use cattail root for that."

He had no idea what he'd said, but the woman lay down then, and holding the sleeping bag open, she indicated that she wanted him to lie down too.

Billy was amazed. It had been what he'd wanted to do to try to warm her up. The few times that he'd touched her since they'd come back here told him that she was still cold. Billy didn't want her to feel uncomfortable, and thought about it as he got down to lie next to her, but Yuan curled herself around him immediately and sighed with a smile, "Ok," she whispered.

Yuan knew that he wanted her to get warm and she wanted that as well. She still felt so sick, and she knew that the few other times when she'd been ill in her life, she'd been just miserable. But with him there and especially with him right there against her, she felt better. She didn't know why, but she knew that he cared for her in some way after so little time, so that was better than fine with her.

She knew that there were going to be some huge issues in this, but with them together like this, Yuan felt at least some desire to want to face them, rather than what she'd always done the few times that she'd found herself up against a human. Those times, they were for her to enjoy, their services paid for and their ignorance assured by the blindfolds in the dark. It had crossed her mind then with one or two of them that she'd have liked to do what they'd been doing on a more or less regular basis, but she knew that they weren't worth knowing, really.

This male fascinated her. There was nothing more to be said.

They had the comedy over trying to learn each other's names. He pointed to himself and said "Billy," and then pointed to her questioningly. It took a while.

She raised her finger and carved a glowing symbol into the air. As it hovered there to his amazement, she'd pointed to the two portions.

Before she could speak, he surprised her, pointing himself. He'd seen the thing in old books at the base library. "Yin," he said and then he pointed at the other, "Yang."

Yuan was amazed and a little delighted. "Yin," she pointed to herself, and then she indicated that he was "Yang,"

"I knew that," he nodded, and then he pointed to himself again, "Billy."

Yuan got it then, but she got hung up with pronunciation, "Birr-"

He shook his head and she watched his hands as he said, ""Bi," indicating the hand and the syllable with his face, before leaning the other way in a comedic and exaggerated fashion toward his other hand, "Lee."

She lay on her side next to him with her eyes wide in comprehension. She clapped her hands once in delight. "Li" was perhaps the most common name in most of the few parts of China where she'd ever been.

"Bi-----li," she said, and he nodded, before bringing his thumb and forefinger together to indicate that it should be shortened.

"Bi---li," she tried again, "Bi-li." She smiled hopefully at him, and he nodded, squeezing his thumb and finger tightly together now. "Billy," he smiled.

"Billy," she laughed, and he reached to touch her nose lightly with his finger to show her that she had it. Then she tried it, making the same exaggerated motions to him. "Yu-----an.

He did his best to screw it up

"You-----ahn, You --- anne," he shrugged.

She shook her head, "Yu-an, Yuan."

Billy was really tempted to go for 'Juan', but she'd fried a deer before his eyes, so ...

"Yuan," he smiled, and waited for her finger to touch his nose, since he'd gotten it right.

She stared at him for a moment, deciding that this stranger had just said her name in a way so subtly different, that she'd never heard it quite like that before. She knew that he was waiting for her to reach for his nose to touch it. She shook her head.

She kissed him instead.

Billy looked suddenly uncomfortable and got up to sit next to her.