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“Ow.” They had spent a good 10 hours outside in the sun. Elle insisted they left at the crack of dawn. By 7:15 in the morning, she was dragging her parents and Emmett out the door and down to Malibu beach for an entire day on the sandy shore— Emmett’s first ever beach trip. Now they were in the large bathtub at her parents house. Elle was gently rubbing aloe vera into Emmett’s horrifically bright red back, shoulders, and chest.
“I know, I know. I’m almost done.”
Emmett was seething, “I don’t get it! I practically wore that entire bottle of sunscreen.”
“You did.” Elle kept rubbing, her hands were so gentle, knowing that any hard pressure would be incredibly painful.
“How was I supposed to know I burn like paper?” His anger continued.
Elle sighed, “You weren’t. You’re never in the sun, hun.”
“And is that my fault?”
“No no, you’ve just never left the East Coast before this week.” She shut the lid on the aloe, reaching for Emmett’s shampoo.
Emmett did not really feel like having his hair washed right now, he just wanted to lay down,“No, Elle-“
“Please? I don’t want the salt water lingering in your hair all night, it’s not good for it. I’ll throw in a scalp massage. It’ll feel nice.”
“Okay.” Emmett gave in, shifting so he was laying with his back to her chest.
She giggled, grabbing a cup and filling it with bath water. Elle put her hand up against his hairline, preventing water from running into his eyes as she poured the water onto his hair to wet it.
Emmett hummed, so relaxed that he didn’t even notice that he had made his content state known aloud.
After hearing his hum, Elle giggled, “Comfy?”
“Very.”
The next few minutes passed in silence. All you could hear was Emmett sighing as Elle worked her sudsy fingers through his scruffy hair, and the trickle as the water to rinse his hair collided with the water in the tub.
Once she was done, Elle helped him stand up and get dried off. He winced slightly as she pat him dry, and she apologized profusely each time.
As he slipped on a loose t-shirt and pair of shorts, Emmett made his lack of knowledge regarding the effects of the sun very apparent, “How long am I going to be a tomato for?”
Elle pulled open the drain in the tub, letting the water escape down the hole, “Probably a few days. The redness will go away, and then you’ll just be a snake for a couple more days.”
“A snake?” That certainly did not sound attractive.
“Well yeah, once the red goes away then your skin will peel and shed like a snake. But don’t worry, that’s the fun part!”
Emmett was still hung up on the snake of it all, “I’m gonna be a snake?!”
“But you’ll be a cute snake!”
He shook his head while squeezing his mint toothpaste for sensitive teeth onto his toothbrush, “Snakes aren’t cute.”
“But you’re cute. And you’ll be a snake. Therefore snakes are cute.” Elle came up behind him, wrapping her arms around his torso as he brushed his teeth.
Despite only having brushed for about thirty seconds, Emmett spit out the toothpaste so he could respond, “I don’t like your logic.”
Elle hummed, “Too bad. You’ll just have to deal with me when you become a snake and I spend fifteen minutes peeling every flake of skin off you.”
“That’s disgusting.”
“No it’s not! It’s just skin it’s not that gross.”
He shot her a look, making her roll her eyes, “We’ll cross that bridge when we get there.” She finished zipping up her own denim short shorts, ready to go back into the world, “You coming?”
Emmett wasn’t aware they were going anywhere, “Where to?”
“To deal with the boatload of sexual remarks my parents are bound to make the second we go back upstairs.”
“Sure.” Emmett chuckled, allowing himself to be pulled upstairs, happy his dark blue shirt covered the vibrant red skin underneath.