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"Hey, Sam?"
"Hmm?"
"These cameras are all ready to go, right?"
"Of course. Just need you to fix them in place and then jiggle them around a bit until they cover the right field of view."
"How's this field of view?"
"What, in the barn? We don't need a camera...there..." He trails off as she waves, just a wiggle of her fingers from where she’s lounging against some artfully-arranged hay bales in the “sexiest” pose she can manage. It feels a little silly, but she’s got nothing better to do with her time until morning comes around.
She'd started the day with three cameras and battery packs, duct-tape-wrapped jury-rigs, each with its own solar charger. Abel's camera network had gotten big enough that to expand it meant traveling out farther than half a day's travel. After placing two of the three cameras, she was holed up in a barn for the night, ready to finish up and head home in the morning.
"Runner Five--" She can hear the exasperation in his voice, and the embarrassment, but she’s not about to let either stop her. Arching her back, she toes off first one battered trainer, then the other, peeling her socks off and stuffing them in the shoes for easy retrieval later.
"What are you
doing
? What if you have to make a run for it in the middle of the night?"
"Sam, come on," she says with a grin. "I'm fifteen feet up in a hay loft only accessible by rickety ladder and the whole trip out was dead quiet. I could probably wander around in the barnyard naked and yodeling and not pull in a single zom."
"As...amusing as that mental image is, please don't try it. Just-- turn the camera off so you don't waste the battery life, and try and get some sleep."
"I helped Janine put these kits together, I happen to know there's a six-hour charge on them,
and
we topped them up before I left." A quick flick to unbuckle her belt, the button on her jeans following close behind. "I'm a little disappointed, Sam. You're really not interested in a little show?"
"A...show?" The incredulity in Sam's voice is clear. "Are you serious, Five?"
"Of course I am, when it
really
matters." She leans in closer to the camera. "But I also know we all need to let off a little steam from time to time. Come on -- there's no zombies around, the camera's got plenty of battery life, I don't get to come home and fall into your bed until tomorrow, and you're all alone in the comms shack."
"You
are
all alone in the comms shack, right?" Batting her eyes, she stares into the camera as if she can see through it to where Sam’s sitting at the other end.
"You are terrible. You are the absolute
worst
." His exasperated laughter is barely audible when she removes the headset and sets it down -- within reach, but far enough away that she’s not likely to crush it by accident. She grins at the camera then started to work her shirt upward in a slow drag, her arms and the bunched-up fabric obscuring her view of the camera she set up. The thought of Sam watching her from miles away curls her toes and steals a moment's breath.
Once she loses the shirt, she picks the headset back up and holds the earpiece to her ear, a laugh bubbling out of her at the silence.
"Sam?" She draws his name out, running a finger along one bra strap, then down her stomach to tuck under the waistband of her jeans. "Still with me?"
There’s a rush of breath through the static.
"Yup. I'm." He can’t seem to get a full sentence out in one go, his voice wondering and uneven. "Still here. Watching you...get...undressed. On camera. For me."
"And are you enjoying it?"
A short laugh, and this time Sam's voice is firm and clear. "Yes."
"So I should keep going?" She puts on her best innocent voice. "What should I do next?"
A long silence, as she watches the camera, her legs stretched out in front of her. She can hear Sam breathing -- she can just about hear him
thinking
.
"You could...take your bra off." She can’t help the wide smile that spread across her face.
"I knew you'd get into it," she says before putting her headset aside again.
Finding a decent bra after the apocalypse has been a bitch and a half, but at least the female runners, out of necessity, get first pick of any sports bras that turned up. Even so, finding the combination of cup size and band size that won’t result in feeling suffocated is an exercise in frustration at the best of times. As she lifts the bra up and over her head, she sighs in relief at the feeling of pressure easing, letting her arms fall back to brace herself as she takes a few deep breaths.
Eyes closed, goosebumps rise on her skin despite the balmy summer night air. Her nipples tighten and she presses her thighs together, the slow, heavy pulse of warmth between them making her want to squirm.
As soon as she puts her headset back on, Sam's voice is a whisper in her ear. "I really wish you were here. Or I were there, but, you know, zombies and barn loft there, walls and a bed here."
"I'll be home again tomorrow and then you can have me all to yourself."
"Can't be soon enough." He sighs, heartfelt. "God, I want to touch you."
The smile creeps over her face again. "Tell me all about it."
"You are
such
a tease, Runner Five. I had no idea what I was in for, did I?"
"Nah. Deep down, you really did. You just didn't want to admit it to yourself for a while. That's partly why it took us so long to get together."
Sam chuckles. "Fair enough."
He hums to himself as she sits there in front of the camera, trying not to fidget but aware of every movement of her body. It wasn't like she hadn't gotten up to some stripping-related mischief with Sam in the past, but always while they were both in the same room. The miles of separation and the limits of their communication make things more -- interesting. "I don't think I could resist trying to get a hand in your pants right about now if I were there."
Five feels herself blush, despite the fact that she’s the instigator of this little session. Bracing herself on one arm, she slips her fingers under the denim of her pants and into her underwear.
"You've been thinking about where this would go since you set up that camera, haven't you?"
She nods, tongue darting out to lick her lips. "Yep. What can I say, I try to keep my imagination...stimulated." Her breath catches on the admission as her fingers drag through the heat between her legs.
"Take the rest of it off. I want to see."
As revenge for the jolt of heat his low voice sends through her with those words, when she pulls her hand free she licks her fingers clean in an exaggerated, drawn-out motion that has Sam choking and swearing on the other end of the comm.
"Sam," She says through a giggle, wiggling in place as she pushes her underwear and jeans down. "You're
such
an easy mark."
"You do this for all your boys before the apocalypse, then?" Sam's voice teases but she can hear an undercurrent of mixed jealousy and interest.
"That's right, I'm a
professional
." At her smirk and waggling eyebrows, Sam cracks up in her earpiece.
"I think I'm a little jealous right now, Five."
"Oh please, it's not like I'm your first Runner Five either." Before the moment can get too heavy, she presses on. "Anyway, I'm kidding. I only did this for the really, really good ones."
She works her underwear and jeans down and over the curve of her ass, then realizes as the hay pokes against her skin that she's made a critical miscalculation. Another giggle escapes her.
"Hang on, hang on, shit." She kicks her clothing aside and leaves the field of view of the camera for a moment to grab a horse blanket she'd seen hanging over a beam. Once she throws it down over the hay and exposed wood she sits back down with her knees drawn up and legs crossed, obscuring Sam's view.
"Better?" Sam's voice is dry and amused, a little breathless. "Ready to, erm, continue?"
"I suppose so."
She lets her legs fall open, unhurried, until she’s cross-legged on the blanket, one hand making small circles on her inner thigh and the other braced against the floor to lean back on.
In her ear, Sam's breathing is audibly harsh and erratic. "I want to see you touch yourself."
"Are you touching yourself?" She tries for teasing, but even she can hear the needy edge in her voice as she dips two fingers between her folds, taking a few long, slow strokes up and down, just barely brushing over her clit.
"With this view?" Even despite the fuzziness of the connection, Sam could be right there, his mouth an inch from her ear. "Of course I'm touching myself."
Lips parting, Five ducks her head, still stroking herself.
"You know," she says, hips rocking against her hand, "I really enjoy it when you finger me."
Sam makes a strangled noise. "Don't think you ever mentioned that before."
"Well, it's true. You have very talented hands."
"You wish-- oh, God-- you wish it were my fingers on you right now? Inside you?" Right on cue, she bends her wrist and slides two fingers into herself.
"Yes--" It’s halfway to a moan, her eyes squeezing closed.
"Shh, yeah, I know, me too. Lie back, it's all right." Five lets herself drop back, her legs splaying out. "Move your other hand -- yeah, there you go."
She rolls a nipple between her thumb and forefinger, panting open-mouthed. Sam groans and she hears what sounded like his forehead landing on the desk. "What you're doing to me, Five--"
There’s a creak that sounds like furniture, probably his battered chair, and the rustle of clothing. In her mind she can picture him, one of the few still awake in Abel at this time of night, sprawled out in the chair in the comms shack with his fly unzipped and his cock in his hand. She bites her lip.
"You're so gorgeous -- just keep going like that, there you go." She'll never be able to listen to Sam on her headset the same way again. The memory of this night is going to be distracting at all the wrong moments.
Her hand speeds up, thumb crooked to rub against her clit as her fingers pump in and out of her, and she realizes her voice has been getting louder and louder. "You're close, aren't you? I can tell, even though I can't see your face from here. I can tell from the way you move."
It's true, she's right on the verge of a truly excellent orgasm when Sam's voice cuts in again. "Put your hand over your mouth,
right now
."
It’s somehow romantic, even cute, in a weird, post-apocalyptic sort of way -- to have Sam know her well enough to see she was so close to coming and know that it would be
hard
and
loud
, and to have him still worry about attracting the attention of any nearby zombies even when they're carrying on like this. Her hips jerk and she’s gone, full-body shudders coursing through her. Her muscles pulse against the fingers buried inside her, the other hand clamped down tight over her mouth to muffle a shaking wail.
In her ear there’s a soft clatter and a bitten-off curse.
"That was definitely one of the best ideas I've ever had," she manages when they've both had a few minutes to catch their breath. "We should do it again sometime."
"You are
unbelievable
." Sam's voice is warm but shaky. "I still definitely enjoy the view, but you should shut the camera off and get your clothes back on before you go to sleep, just in case."
He groans. "Tomorrow's going to be way too long."