By the Letter (Closed for Scuttles)

[Faux_Pas]

"This is fucking insane." Andrea gave another glance around as she worked to pick the lock of the zoo, cursing as another hair pin snapped in the tumbler. "God DAMN it!"

Feeling around in her hair, she frowned, hoping to find another one tucked into her mess of golden curls. "Yeah, so, uh. We have an issue here. I'm out." She frowned again as the camera man panned in closer, reaching out to shove him back. "No, Harry, don't start that shit again. After the whole fucking car ride of you shoving that thing in my face, I am SO not in the mood for it, okay?"

Harry scowled, lowering his camera enough to glare at her. "You better get back in the mood for something. You two have only covered 3 locations. Last I checked the website, the other team is up to 7."


Her face dropped a bit with that, suddenly giving a harsh shriek and kicking the steel fence- only to immediately regret that and grabbing at her Toms covered toes. "Ow! Fucking FUCK! I- Gnaah!" Growling, she dropped to the edge of the curb, nursing her now sore toes and pouting at the camera man. "Seven. Seriously? We've only been out for 2 days. How the hell did they manage that?"

"Oh, so that's why you guys are lagging-," He started, snickering behind the camera.... only to stop abruptly as Andrea grabbed up a rock from the flower garden beside her. "They took more unique vehicles. Those count, y'know. Even a quick ride is enough."

She sighed heavily, lowering her head into her hands and groaning. "I can't even think of anything else starting with Z, then. Passing this zoo was a total open opportunity. Well... If it had been open."


The show was being broadcast live each day, to over 10 thousand online subscribers so far. With the numbers increasing with every updated event, the producers were now pushing for more of them to happen in faster time. Unfortunately, that was only seeming to happen for one team...

"Well. Looks like we're not hitting Z anytime soon." Getting up from the curb, she gave another push to the camera man, instead trying to get her partner's attention. "Any other ideas? We need to gain at least another 2 for the day before we hit a hotel." She paused, rubbing her chin. "Y'know, a Motel would up us one... If you feel we can handle it. Or a hotel again, if you're up for something... messy?" She spread her hands, shrugging. "It's an option, at least."

 

[Scuttle Buttin']

He'd tried his own hand at breaking and entering, just around the bend of the long wall that was doing it's very best to keep them out, and appeared to have as much success as she did. It was just as the information was delivered that the other team had more than tripled their total that he returned, and his shoulders slumped a bit with the news. It had started out... well, it had started out as a few different things, but the competitive juices had quickly kicked in, and now he wanted to win. Or maybe at least not be completely embarrassed.

"Aquarium, arboretum, amphitheater," he began, speaking mostly to himself, "Dorm, drive-in, doctor's office..."

It was a habit he had fallen into quickly, making lists of places by letter, trying to come up with anything they could get to quickly and cross one more off the list. So far it hadn't helped much - who was going to let them into a doctor's office? - but it was still early. Or so he hoped.

The third in their little trio didn't exactly make things, easier. A man holding a camera following two people around naturally drew attention, which made the whole reason they were being followed around harder to accomplish. Clearly, though, the others had found a way around it.

His attention taken from his list-making, he shrugged and poked a thumb back over his shoulder.

"Wasn't there a.. what's it called? Barnes-a-Million or whatever, back there? If we could get Camera Joe there to not draw too much attention to himself we could make our way to the back of the stacks."

He shrugged himself, and started turning in a slow circle, eyes scanning the area as he mumbled the various signs to himself. Three-quarters of the way around he stopped, and a grin spread across his face.

"C'mon," he said, holding out his hand to her, "I think we have a winner."

He waited until she'd put her hand in his, and with cameraman Harry in tow he pulled her along with him.

"There are some letters I'm still having trouble with. Z being one of them," he grumbled, with an annoyed glance over his shoulder at the gift they'd stumbled across that was still wrapped up tight, "But U was the other. I didn't think they'd let 'under a table' count, and 'underwater,' well.. I don't own any SCUBA gear. But," he looked to her as they left the zoo behind, and the grin was back on his face, "They can't argue with this one." With his free hand, he pointed ahead of them.

Adam was going to rent a U-Haul.

 

[Faux_Pas]

"We should have brought a thesaurus or something," Andrea grumbled in frustration, glancing to her partner with a quirked brow as he took to his listing of sudden options. "Amphitheater? Where the hell you expect to find one of those around here?"

"Uh, about the whole thesaurus thing...,' Harry quipped suddenly, raising a hand cautiously as he watched the two. "That, uh... That would disqualify you."

"Shut up, Harry." Her voice was sharp as she snapped the words, glaring at him once again. "You know how to ruin damn near everything." Adam's suggestion on the bookstore, however, did seem a decent idea at the moment. "I think we'd need a different ride for that, though. That was about 4 strip malls ago. I'm not really excited on hearing ol' Pantsalot over here lagging behind us."

"This camera is heavy!"

"Uhhuh." Glancing back to Adam as he took in their surroundings, a smirk of her own came in with his sudden smirk. "Oh. Someone has a plan over there..." Taking his hand as he held it out, her smile grew even more as he started to lead her down the road, a destination already set by his steps, but his words not revealing much into his plans. "Well... It seemed a good shot. I mean- A zoo is probably the best we could have come across." A worried look came to her features at the mention of 'underwater'. "Yeeah, I don't- I don't think I'd be much for that one, either. See, I've got this thing about water...?" She trailed off as he pointed down the road, her face brightening of his intentions. "Oh, Adam, that's genius."

Following his lead to the main office, she lingered back as he went to set things up, spotting the water cooler settled off to the side of the little room. Happily taking a cone of water for herself, she considered for a moment, then drew up another one before returning to Harry. "Here." She shoved it towards him, sipping at her own before shrugging. "Hey, from the sounds of it, Adam has a mini roadtrip planned for us. You'll want to be able to keep that heavy thing up, y'know?" She smirked with that, already feeling an excited rush running through her. Another letter off the list, very soon. She was already squirming at the very thought.

 

[Scuttle Buttin']

The look on the face of the older Asian man behind the counter went from one of pleasant surprise to mostly just surprised as the couple entered, and then a man lugging a camera followed them in. Just inside the door the trio separated, with Andrea's hand released as Adam made his way to the counter.

"Hey," Adam said, smiling a bit, uncertainty about virtually every aspect of this plan hitting him suddenly. They couldn't exactly leave the truck where it was, climb in the back, and then just return the key when they were done. So, they had to take it somewhere. But where? And once there, then what? It's not like these things came with furniture already loaded in them, which meant they just had a bare truck. He couldn't imagine her being too keen on the idea of laying down in the back of it and, come to think of it, he wasn't exactly excited at the prospect either.

And he had to pay for the thing, presumably out of pocket!

Though, he supposed if the won this whole thing, a lowly truck rental wouldn't even enter his mind anymore, as far as financial went. They'd split the money of course, but this would be chump change in the grand scheme of things. If they won. A prospect that was suddenly seeming dimmer as they ran into dead ends while the other team seemed to be fu-

"Sir? Help you?"

Adam blinked and realized he'd fallen silent as everything hit him at once. With a nervous laugh, he glanced back over his shoulder where Andrea and the cameraman stood sipping on cones of water - a thing he'd literally never understood the purpose of, but couldn't exactly let his mind wander down that path right now, either, lest the friendly man still staring at him expectantly decided to kick them all out or something - then turned back to the agent.

"Yeah, sorry, we uh... want to rent a truck," he stammered out, and then with the words finally out there he found his footing and continued on, "Smallest one you have. And just for the day. Actually, just for a couple hours probably. We'll have it back before the day's out, definitely."

"No problem," the man replied with a nod and took a step to the side to stand behind his computer, "One moment."

As the man typed away, Adam again looked back at the pair by the water cooler. Harry was a man he'd barely given a second thought to... except when he was getting all zoomy and ended up as more of an unfortunately necessary distraction. He suspected, win or lose, when all this was over Harry was a man he'd not give another spare thought to again. A footnote in a time when he lost, but still ended up with a pretty fantastic consolation prize, or the necessary evil for something that changed his life. From bike messenger to... what? Internet star? Joke on late-night TV? Either way, there would be a lot of paper around to dry his tears.

Andrea, on the other hand, was someone he'd given a good amount of thought to. She was virtually a stranger, though he wondered if it was possible to still call someone a stranger after the rather unique couple days they'd spent together. But it wasn't like a lot of time was left for talking, either. After checking off their three places, he knew more about the way she sounded when she managed to forget a camera was pointed at them from two feet away than virtually everything else about her. He was not against the idea of getting to know more, though. If they worked as well together in those few areas they'd spent most their time together in - and so far, when they were able to forget about the camera, they worked very well - then it stood to reason that their chemistry would carry over into other areas. Didn't it?

"Okay, sir, I have truck. Just need you to sign papers. Truck is twenty dollars for day, plus ninety-nine cent per mile." All this was said as he pointed to the three places where Adam needed to sign, and then pulling a key on an oversized plastic keyring out from under the desk.

The rest of the transaction went quickly, probably the easiest the man would have that day, and less than ten minutes later the trio was back outside the office, with Adam matching the number on the keyring to the number on one of the trucks.

"Looks like this is us," he said, pointing to what was, thankfully, the smallest truck on the lot. Walking towards the truck, he turned and walked backwards in front of Andrea, grinning as the once-floundering excitement in him came to life again.

"So where shall we go to cross off the dreaded letter U? Any suggestions?"

 

[Faux_Pas]

"He's looking at you again. I should totally get a good zoom in on this and-"

"Ugh. Just shut the fuck up, Harry." Andrea glared at the camera man over the edge of her cone, sipping at the last of the water and managing to crumple the thing into a ball. A stolen glance was given to her partner of this whole game, some thoughts of her own given on the whole matter. She hadn't intended to make friends or anything more through this thing. It was all business. Or at least, it was supposed to be. But when it came to the complexity of the challenges given- well. That made adhering to that rule so much harder. It was difficult not to let that spill into her thoughts and feelings.

Adam was turning back around, the key in his hand and headed for the door. Tossing her cone-ball-creation into the wastebasket, she set off an echoing "bing-bong" sound of the chime as she followed after him through the lot. Glancing around as he looked for their vehicle, a tiny shiver ran through her. "Oh great, the one with the giant ass spider. Of all the things Hawaii could put on there- they picked THAT?!"

At least she wouldn't be looking at it for long. Far more interesting things to view coming up soon. A smirk came to her lips as her partner scooted back towards her, reaching up to move some stray hair that had fallen in her face and shrugging. "Where to go... Oh. Ohhh, I've got an idea. Gimme the key."

While not-exactly-asking, she reached out, snatching the oversized holder from his hand and darting to the driver's door. "Relax. I've only been in one accident and- Oh, fuck. Its standard. Well, I've been meaning to learn!" Shrugging, she started the truck, then looked to him out the window. "You boys coming or what? Harry. You're riding in back. We'll join you soon." She winked at Adam with that, smirking again and waiting for him to join her in the cab.

"The whole zoo thing pissed me off. So we're going to get our own little revenge," She explained, trying to back the truck out of the parking spot. "Fuck. I- Fuck. Harry! Tell me how close I am!"

"That's supposed to be YOU TWO!"

"NOT THAT, HARRY!" Andrea rolled her eyes, trying to crane her neck to peer out the window, inching the vehicle to face the driveway. "Good enough. At least its just back up the road." Pulling out onto the road and fighting with the stick shift, she gave another quick glance to Adam. Finally getting to a decent speed, her hand crept up over the seat, rubbing against her partner's inner thigh. "He's not able to see, now, y'know..." She smiled again, peeking back to the road.

 

[Scuttle Buttin']

Something with a stick, something with a stick.. excited to watch you work a stick again? No, dumb. Fuck fuck. Maybe you could grab my stick like.. no. Dumb. Goddammit.

At a loss for something witty, he instead opted to just climb in the passenger seat after a glance towards the back of the truck, where ol' Harry stood, camera in hand, looking annoyed that he was relegated to breathing fumes. And probably hoping they'd not be long, wherever they were going, lest the cross of H at a hospital.

Which, now that he thought about it, wasn't a terrible idea. It was a whole building full of beds. And if they went late enough, entire sections of the place were virtually deserted. Dark and quiet. He thought getting them in wouldn't be a problem, but their third wheel in this whole crazy scheme had proven to be less than stealthy in their short time together, and that didn't seem to be changing anytime soon. Still... a hospital. He'd file that one away for later.

The two were going back and forth, as they'd found themselves in the habit of doing over the last day or so, and he only laughed to himself and shook his head. And gripped the handle above the passenger side window. Ever the conscious passenger, he sat with his back straight and his head held against the useless back window, making sure he didn't obscure the mirrors at all. The last thing they needed was to hit something and be delayed further, the reward disappearing more and more from their view.

The driveway, though, was in view and relatively straight on, a bit to his surprise, and he exhaled a breath he hadn't realized he was holding in as they moved. One eye pinched closed as she shifted into first gear, a short but awful grinding sound rattling through the truck, and then the sound of the sliding door being pulled down echoed off the sides of the other trucks, a bizarre sound not unlike someone throwing around bags full of empty soda cans. With his shoulders relaxing, and potential insurance claims averted for the moment, the truck lurched forward and they were off.

"So," he said once they were underway, his head cocked a bit to the side as he looked across the seat at her, "When you say our own little revenge, you don't mean smashing through the gate do you? Cause I gave that guy my actual name and everything."

He paused, frowning a bit to himself, his eyes drifting away from her and his voice lowering a bit.

"Though... jury box, jury room, judge's chambers..."

A hand on his thigh pulled him out of the list making, and he glanced down at it then up the length of her outstretched arm spanning the distance between them like a suspension bridge. A grin spread across his lips, and he glanced at the back window, then back to her.

"Poor Harry."

He slid across the length of the bench seat, stretching himself out a bit so his feet remained mostly in the passenger floorboard and he didn't hit the stick shift.

"But he'll survive. Probably."

His lips met her neck, teeth scrabbling across her neck quickly before he murmured against the warm flesh there.

"Just keep your eyes on the road. Be a shame to die now."

His head tipped to the side, lips and teeth moving against her neck again, little marks left where he bit, the tip of his tongue swiping across the new indentations he left on her. His initial boldness at signing up for this had faded once he was actually here and had to do what it took to win. Three times in, now, and they were well past the point of being shy with one another here. Besides, there was a lot of money on the line.

And, he wanted to hear again that sound she made the second time.

With his mouth against her neck still, his hand slid over her thigh, and then pushed without hesitation upward. Nestling into the juncture where her thighs met, he pressed with his fingertips and stroked against her.