DETERRENT - Apply Fic

24

When it rains in North Marcanty, it smells of dampness. It's earthier, richer than the smell of Neo Elysium. Thunder rumbles overhead, lightning ignites the dim lit day. There are no street lights here, no neo signs reflecting in puddles.

The shacks where the delinquents have been staying are not sealed properly, and Gale wakes up to water dripping on his forehead. They rush to the homestead, where Benji sets them up on his main floor.

"We could sleep upstairs," Rhiannon Rose rolls her eyes at breakfast, deep black bags underneath them.

They've commandeered the lounge and the dinning room, four mattresses packed into each room with the sofas and tables pressed up against the walls. Calath and Harvey Kae are relegated to mattresses in the hallway, making mid-night trips to the bathrooms difficult. In such tight quarters, they've all had to be used to each other's snores.

"You could also sleep out in those wet shacks, so I'd appreciate a thank you," Benji says, closing the cupboard.

It is there third day straight of rain, Friday, and there are no signs it's letting up. Benji sighs and puts the milk back in the fridge. From there, he hurries back upstairs.

No one cares to ask where he is going. The week is as exhausting as if their first week on the farm. Norbu's entire body is cramped and there is no space to stretch out. Titus and Harvey cannot catch a minute alone in this cramped house, and if Eurydice has to listen to Faris and Calath talk about irrigation for another second, she's going to get another sentence for a murder that was more intentional than her last.

They hear the sound of the front door open and shut. Cosmia peers out the front door and watches as Benji runs out of the house in a raincoat. He doesn't return for a few minutes.

Cosmia mutters curses under her breath as she puts on shoes. She runs outside, where Benji has finished putting a top cover on the truck bed and is now scrubbing out the wet inside with a towel. Cosmia hops inside, already shivering and hair soaking. She grabs a towel and starts to dry the rest.

"Thanks," he says before he catches that it's her.

Benji stops. Cosmia still scrubs, aware of his lack of pace. She doesn't say anything.

He returns to the work, and they are done within a minute.

"You..." Benji swallows. He scratches the back of his neck.

Cosmia looks up at him, wet hair sticking to her face. She shrugs, "it's fine. Don't thank me."

She pulls her arms in tight, skin lined with goosebumps. Benji shrugs off his coat and throws it over her shoulders, protecting her.

"Hey!"

Norbu smiles, jumping into the truck beside them. He shakes out his hair, and it gets in Cosmia's eyes. She shoves him and he laughs.

"We driving somewhere?"

Cosmia looks over at Benji. He sits upright in the truck bed and then nods.

"George is coming, since it won't be comfortable for the rest of y'all to cram in tightly," Benji points out. "Think it's about time I take y'all to the trading post."

~~~

After a forty-minute drive, rain plinking off the rooftops above them, they arrive at Jeremiah Jones' trading post. One the trucks stop, they race through the parking lot, feet sticking in the mud, dirt splashing up onto their calves. Then, they are inside.